Forgotten But Not Lost
by A Dyslexic Writer
Summary: He might have forgotten everything he had ever known, but that didn't matter once he picked up a sword. Some things are just too well ingrained to be completely forgotten. Now all he has to do is learn to put these skills to good use, and maybe figure out what was going on between him and that Tsundere girl.
1. Chapter 1

'Awaken!'

The command echoed inside of Shirou's head, forcing him to consciousness. Eyes shot open and a breath was held as he scanned his surrounds. There was no light at all and he found himself in pitch darkness, his face pressed up against bare rock. But even if there was no light, he could still tell that he was not alone. He could hear the breathing of others, steady breaths that quickly grow more panicked. The slight sounds of bodies moving around, hands sliding on dusty floors. It was hard to judge how many sources there were, but he guessed it had to be a least a half dozen, probably more.

Making sure to make as little noise as possible, Shirou pushed himself up onto the balls of his feet. His instincts were telling him to move towards the edge of the party and put a wall to his back, but before he could act on said instincts, one of the others in the room spoke up.

"Is someone else there?" It was the voice of a young man somewhere off to his right. The young man seemed confused and lost.

Several voices answered. Eight answered in total, but some didn't reply. "It's so dark in here. Does anyone have a match?" Another boy asked the group.

"A match? What's… a match?" A girl asked in response.

"Are you kidding me? It's a… It's a… I… I don't remember." The entire party paused all of them thinking. They all felt like they should have known what a match was, but that they didn't. Then they all started to notice something else. "I can't remember anything. The only thing I remember is my name."

"Same here. And it's Riku, by the way."

"I'm… Sara… I think."

Shirou didn't say his own name. He was gathering his thoughts, trying to recall anything that might have been of use.

"What's going on. I'm scared." A younger female voice cried. It sounded like a child's.

"This isn't a time to panic or ask questions." A calm female voice said from somewhere in the darkness. A slight sting flicked through Shirou head as he heard her voice. "I've found a wall. We can use the maze solving technique of just keeping your right hand on the wall and find our way out of here. Questions can be saved for once we have more to work with."

Some people hesitated, not sure whether or not to move, so Shirou stepped up. "She's right. We won't figure anything out just sitting here in the dark. We should keep moving." Shirou said as he walked towards where he had heard the girl speak from and put his own right hand against the cave wall.

No one wanted to be left alone in the dark, and soon they were all at the wall, walking along with a hand pressed against the smoother stones, but it wasn't long before faint light started to filter into their surroundings. They were candles, small ones that didn't give off much light at all, but still they seemed to act as a guide in the darkness.

"These candles…" The girl from before mumbled, but then stopped, shaking her head of black hair and continuing to move.

Shirou wondered if there had been something strange about the candles, beyond that anyone had bothered to light them at all, when he took a closer look and saw what he could only assume the other girl saw. There were no wax drippings on the candles that would usually occur while you were burning one. Nor did they seem to give off any heat at all. These weren't normal candles.

She had probably not mentioned them in order to keep from spooking those in the group who were already scared.

The cave slowly turned into a manmade passageway lined with stone bricks and the unnatural candles were replaced with oil lamps, which gave off more light, though still less than one would expect. Shirou doubted that the lamps were any more ordinary than the candles had been. The slight ascent of the cave's flooring was replaced by a staircase, which they all climbed without compliant until they arrived at a large iron door.

Like before, the calm girl was the first one to approach it, grabbing onto the handles and pushing and pulling as hard as she could. "Either is locked or just too heavy." She turned her head around and looked at the group before her eyes locked on Shirou. "You, try to open this door."

Shirou nodded and moved forward to grab the iron handle before pulling on it with all his strength and weight behind it. The door shifted a bit, but seemed to rebound back into place. "Definitely locked." Shirou said before looking around and grabbing one of the oil lamps to hold it close to the door, searching for a keyhole. "It's an old fashion tumbler lock. Heavy, but not too solid. It's the kind of thing we can trip with a solid enough hairclip, unfortunately it doesn't look like we have one here. Have to improvise." Shirou got to work, opening up the lamp and removing the oil flask and still lit wick before smashing the frame, startling the others. Taking two of the brass wire rods that had made up the frame of the lamp, he got to work on the door's lock.

"So, you know how to pick locks then?" The black haired girl asked, seeming a little interested in that.

Shirou hands continued to work even as his mind pondered the question over. "Not sure. I'm familiar with how locks work, but I don't feel I've ever picked one before. I can't remember having ever done it before."

"So long as you are putting your talents to good use, I'm not going to complain." The girl said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm Rin. What's your name?"

"Shirou." The boy responded, feeling a little smug that he was the only one the girl had introduced herself to. He gave the wires one final twist. There was a dull click as the lock was successfully picked and Shirou pulled the door open.

"It opened! Oh thank kami!" One of the boys said, rushing out before stumbling on a loose brick and nearly falling down. Others were also hurrying forward, trying to get out of the dark stone tower that they had woken up in.

Shirou wasn't in so much of a rush. Something was odd about the light coming through the door. It had a distinct tint of red to it.

When they all finally did get out of the building, Shirou found that he had been right. Up in the sky was a blood red moon. The crimson sphere glowed bright and as Shirou looked at it, he swore he could see some kind of design on it, far too symmetrical and meaningful to be natural.

"That moon. I might not remember much, but I know that moon isn't right. I can say for sure that the world I was in before didn't have a red moon." Rin said, thinking the same thing that Shirou did.

Now that they were outside in the light of the moon, Shirou got to get his first good look at her. She was dressed in a long-sleeved red shirt with a cross design on the front, a short black skirt, and long black stockings. Some of her long black hair was tied up into twin ponytails on either side of her head while the rest fell down over her shoulders.

Rin stood out from the rest of the group. While the rest of the group was working itself into a panic from confusion, she held herself with a cool confidence, as if she was in complete control of the situation.

"Everyone, calm down." Rin said, her voice loud but not sharp, a call to attention, not a criticism of others for their weaknesses. "If we want to figure out what is going on then we have to keep moving. This tower didn't build itself. Some kind of civilization probably exists nearby. For now, the night is cold, so we should make whatever camp we can and explore in the morning. Gather wood from nearby and use the oil lamp to make a proper fire."

Listening to her speak, people started to calm down. Some even eyed the woods around the edge of the clearing that the tower they had came out of sat.

"I wouldn't do that." Someone said from out in the woods, causing a few people to jump. From a small path, nearly completely hidden by brush and shadows came a man clad all in armor. The man had a pair of round rimmed glasses that looked kind of ridiculous on his face with his crew cut hair. He smiled at them in a nervous, but reassuring manner. "While this part of the forest is relatively peaceful, you don't want to be staying out here for long if you don't have to."

Shirou's eyed the man, or more particularly the massive sword on his back. It looked too broad and heavy to even be called a claymore. Not a practical weapon for your average fight and should be nearly unwieldable with normal human strength.

'Judging the concept of…'

Pain shot through Shirou's eyes and into his skull, causing him to flinch and look away. Every time he opened his eyes and looked at the weapon the pain returned. It wasn't like when he had tried to remember what a match was. It was a hundred times worse.

He kept his eyes off of the man's weapon, focusing instead on his chest and shoulders. Part of him wondered what it was that was causing the pain, but the other part registered one thing and one thing only.

This man had a weapon, and they didn't.

That was not a circumstance that Shirou liked, and his mind worked on a way to rectify this problem. He was still holding onto the oil flask with its lit wick still inside of it. There wasn't enough lamp oil in there to cause seriously injure the man, but if he threw it at the guy and it caught fire, it might be enough to distract him till Shirou could disarm him.

Apparently, his plan showed in his face and stance, because the man put up his hands in the universal sign of surrender. "Hold on now. No need to go throwing anything at anybody. I'm a friend here." He said earnestly, holding out a large iron key. "My name's Kimura, I'm with the Crimson Moon Reserve Forces, a militia group that works from the nearby city of Alterna. I was sent here to unlock the tower door and let you all out… which you seem to have done yourselves."

The group who came out of the tower whispered amongst themselves, all finding it weird that anyone would be walking around in full armor and carrying a sword, though just like before, it was Rin who was focused and took the lead. "You were sent to get us. Then you were expecting us to be here? Why is that?" Rin questioned the man.

Kimura's eyes went from Shirou who was still holding the oil flask, ready to fling it at him to Rin and swallowed hard. "Well, this isn't exactly a rare occurrence." Kimura admitted, scratching the back of his head with a gauntleted hand. Shirou thought he might have seen a flush on the man's face, but that could have been the light from the red moon playing tricks on his eyes. "That tower behind you spits out somewhere between six and twenty people every full moon. Every time no one has any memories of where they came from and only can remember their names. I myself came out of that tower around eight months ago."

"I see. Considering the fact that you are standing before us, it seems safe to assume you don't know of any way for us to return to where we came from." Rin said calmly with a nod of understanding.

"Afraid not, Miss." Kimura said. "Welcome to the world of Grimgar, not the nicest place out there, but it grows on you. I'll be guiding you to the Commander of the Red Moon Reserves, he'll help you all get on your feet."

"Get on our feet?" One of the girls who had came out of the tower with them asked. Looking at the group as a whole, it seemed to be comprised of twelve people, seven girls and five boys. All of their ages seemed to be somewhere between fifteen and eighteen, save for the smallest girl who looked as though she was ten.

"I presume he means money. I guess this world has its own currency, and since we are new here, we have none." Rin said, one of her eyebrows twitching slightly. "So, since we are broke and in a strange land with no means to support ourselves, we have no choice but to take whatever sort of work we can get. Is that the basic idea?"

"Unfortunately." Kimura nodded in conformation. "You won't be able to find much better jobs than you will get working for the Reserve Forces. Unless you want to starve, I suggest you hear the Commander out."

Rin gave a long sigh. "I suppose we don't have any better option. Lead the way."

"Alright, just let me lock the Forbidden Tower back up so that kids don't try to play in it, and then we will be on our way. The sun will be up in a few minutes but be careful to stick together anyways." Kimura said with a smile, walking forward towards the door in the side of the tower. He paused and looked towards Shirou. "Would you mind leaving that oil flask here? I'd rather you not freak out in town and start a fire somewhere."

Shirou didn't react, wondering if there would be a way for him to keep the impromptu weapon without agitating the guide. "Shirou-kun." Rin said sharply, giving him a look. Her arms were crossed, and she was tapping one foot. The scowl on her face caused a bead of sweat to form on the back of the boy's neck.

Finally, Shirou gave a sigh of defeat and dropped the flask to the ground before stomping out the wick. Satisfied, Kimura went and locked up the tower before showing them the path back towards the town.

Somewhere along the way, Shirou saw Rin trying to hide a rock up her sleeve, only to discard the idea. With the narrow sleeves, skirt and stockings, she didn't have many options when it came to hiding weapons.

Moving closer to her side, Shirou discretely poked her in the side before offering her one of the brass wires he had used to pick the door lock. She gave him a look before taking it and sliding it up her sleeve. The thin wire wouldn't be good for much, but if she stabbed hard enough it could probably break the skin and give an attacker pause. If she got someone in their eye, it could definitely take them down for the count.

"You're unusually calm about everything, don't you think." Rin said to him.

"I could say the same thing about you." Shirou countered. He hadn't realized that he himself had also been so relaxed until she had mentioned it. "I guess we are both unusual."

"No, you're unusual. I'm just pragmatic." Rin said with a sly smile before breaking away from him.

Shirou found himself smiling too, until one of the other girls in the group gasped. "Are… are those graves!?" She said, pointing towards a large number of small stone markers that barely reached Shirou's knee. Some of them had flowers placed at them, so they were clearly graves.

"I told you, Grimgar isn't exactly the nicest place. Right now, we are at the Frontier settlement called Alterna, which marks the boundary between the human kingdoms and the hostile territory controlled by the monster races that have made human's their enemies. People die out here all the time." Kimura informed them.

"Monsters!?" The girl squealed.

"Which races?" Shirou asked.

"All that can wait till later." Kimura said, seeming not to want to answer a hundred questions. Either way, the information about monsters living in the land made everyone speed up a little. Though that didn't them from mumbling about how monsters didn't really exist.

They arrived at the city gates just as the sun was rising and were ushered through by a few guards who looked annoyed to having been up all night doing the night shift and were looking forward to a well-deserved sleep as soon as the morning shift people got there.

Just like before, when Shirou saw the swords strapped to their waists, his eyes burned and he heard a hollow, recorded voice play in his head before being abruptly stopped.

'Judging the concept of…'

The pain repeated again and again as they walked down the streets, passing several dozens of armed men and women who seemed to be going about their daily routines. Shirou could barely concentrate on keeping up with the group because everywhere he looked there were swords, swords and more swords. The words kept playing again and again in his head, and every time it was cut off by another surge of pain.

'Judging the concept of…'

'Judging the concept of…'

'Judging the concept of…'

The world around him blurred and he found himself walking in a flat plain covered in grass with swords sticking out of the ground like grave markers, only for another flash of intense pain to pull him back to reality, causing him to stumble.

What was this? Shirou had no idea, but he could feel like it was something he should know. Something that was a part of who he was, perhaps even more than his own name was. It was something that whatever power that had brought them there was desperately trying to force him to forget.

"Alright we're here." Kimura said as they stopped in front of a two-story building. The white flag that bore a red crescent moon was worn down and some of the letters on the sign appeared to be missing. The place didn't look to be all that well cared for. Meaning the organization either didn't hold much value, or it was simply so focused on other work that it didn't have time to bother with appearances.

They entered the building and found themselves in a large room with a long bar table on one side, and various other tables scattered around the room. It seemed as though the place wasn't just the office of the local militia, it was also a drinking establishment of some kind, thought it was abandoned in the earlier hours of the day.

"That's odd. The Commander was supposed to meet us here." Kimura said with a worried glance at the stairs. "Don't tell me he forgot what day it was and slept in again." The man looked conflicted as his eyes went from the stairs to the group and back to the stairs, as if trying to decide which was worse, trying to go wake up this 'commander', or sticking around and having to answer questions. Finally, he made his choice and went towards the stairs, telling the kids he had just picked up to sit down and wait for him to get the guy in charge, muttering something about never filling in for Hiyuma ever again.

Shirou looked around the room, until his eyes fell on a sheathed sword that was displayed on a nearby wall.

'Judging the concept of…'

Again the pain came, but this time, Shirou tried to endure it and push forward. He wouldn't simply let whatever it was that was trying to block him win. Even if it hurt, he would force his way through. He walked up towards the sword's display, keeping his eyes locked on the sword hilts as he went.

'Judging the concept…'

'Judging the concept of c…'

'Judging the concept of crea…'

Again and again his mind tried to do something and was stopped. Finally, Shirou reached up and grabbed the sword, and his world exploded. If felt as if hot fire was shutting up and down his spine and the entire world started to fade out of focus around him.

'Error: unable to reach storage space. Solution: establishing new storage space. New space established. Rebooting: Unlimited Blade Works.'

Shirou found himself on a narrow beach, with the sea on one side and an impenetrably thick forest on the other. The beach stretched out in either direction out farther than the eye could see, but still had a strangely small feel to it. The sky was a dark grey color with a solitary red disc floating in it. A gear. Shirou couldn't recall what exactly a gear was, but that was it.

'Judging the concept of creation'

'Hypothesizing the basic structure'

'Duplicating the composition material'

'Imitating the skill of its making'

'Sympathizing with the experience of its growth'

'Reproducing the accumulated years'

'Excelling every manufacturing process'

Stuck in the sand on this strange beach, right in front of Shirou, was a single solitary sword. The same sword he had just been holding. He knew this sword. He knew its every scratch and imperfection. He knew every hand that had held it and every monster that it had slain. He knew the processes that had been used in its forging and the ones used later on in order to repair and strengthen the blade. He knew this blade better than he knew himself. This was what the world had been trying to make him forget, this fundamental aspect of his own identity.

Shirou was a sword.

* * *

 **Wrote this because I am something of a fan of the two crossovers of this type that are out there, and the two of them seem to have this thing were if one updates the other quickly pushes out a chapter. So I thought I would publish something and see if I could get a reaction out of them.**

 **If not, oh well.**

* * *

 **Kimura was a character in the later parts of the Light Novel, and an aggressive defender of the attractiveness of flat chested women. It seems like half the cast is aware of Yume's status as best girl and the other half is in denial... except for Renji who seems to want Bri-chan to try to 'take him'.**


	2. Chapter 2

Memento.

A broad one-hand sword of the kind commonly used by Paladins and Dread Knights due to the five-inch-wide blade, which acted as a surface for which holy or unholy marks could be placed as part of their rituals. The cross guard on this particular weapon curved up more abruptly towards the edges than others of its type.

Its original owner had been a paladin who gave his life in order to protect his party members. It was in his memory that one of the remaining members of the group picked up the sword and became a paladin himself. However, since the owner was originally a mage he had to alter the sword with an Elemental binding in order to allow himself to use magic in the presence of iron.

The two wielders fighting styles differed greatly as the first man had used both a sword and shield when in combat and had been more heavily reliant on the shield and lunging techniques, while his successor became a master of using his off hand for casting spells while the sword was a means of getting him closer to his targets, where even his more basic spells could do significant damage. It was the second user who had eventually became a Commander of the Crimson Moon and had left the sword that headquarters after retirement, where it was made a display piece.

The history of the blade had become plain to Shirou. He knew the method of its making, the wielders who had held it, the monsters it had slain, the story behind every scratch on its surface. More importantly, the skills and techniques of the men who had held it before him. The odd mixture of martial art with some kind of energy manipulation, with the particular set on display in this weapon taught only to the individuals in of the Paladin's Guild.

"Hey, put that down!" Kimura shouted at him, having come back from wherever it was he had gone. Shirou didn't exactly hurry to comply. His eyes moved up to where Kimura was shouting at him from, and fixed yet again on the massive sword he was holding. "Honestly, first the gate, then the oil, and now this? Are you just a thief that managed to slip in with the recruits?" Kimura commented, though Shirou paid him no mind. He was busy learning what he could about the man's sword.

The weapon was what the men and women of the Warrior's Guild called a great sword, though its size exceeded even that. The weapon weighed in at around twenty pounds, quadruple the weight of a conventional great sword. The main purpose of these weapons was to use momentum to plow through enemy armor and incapacitate multiple smaller individuals at the same time.

Just like with the Paladin's Guild, the Warrior's Guild seemed to have teach skills that were a mixture of martial arts and manipulating one's own energy. However, most of the skills used by the warrior's guild didn't really appeal to Shirou, as they usually revolved around using the massive weight of their weapons to their advantage, and he couldn't see himself trying to swing around the larger weapons. But, there were still a few skills that had been used with the blade that Shirou started to commit to memory.

Chief among these was a technique referred to as [Steel Guard], a technique that normally used for reinforcing one's armor with their own energy in order to increase the user's defense, but which could be used to strength the sword as well in order to prevent your sword from breaking. It seemed like a useful skill to have, though Shirou couldn't help but to feel like it was missing something. While the blade would get harder, its edge would remain unchanged.

Luckily, the Paladin skill set could fill in this hole, as the [Saber] skill was able to sharpen a blade using light magic through prayers to their god and a small ritual involving drawing on the blade with their blood. Shirou didn't have a clue whether or not their god, Lumiaris, would assist someone who wasn't an actual worshipper, but he knew the shape and words needed to perform the ritual.

"Come on man, just put it down already." Kimura said uncomfortably, not knowing that even at that moment, Shirou was testing to see if he could perform the Steel Guard skill, opening up the channels in his body and feeding his energy into the blade. Energy… it felt like there was a better, more exact word for it, but Shirou couldn't quite grasp it. Didn't matter. The ability to use it was more important than the name anyways. The strengthen effect was immediate, though it started to slowly weaken over the next hour if not reapplied. Doing it felt almost like second nature to Shirou.

"Forget it, Ki-chan." Someone new who Shirou hadn't notice enter the room said. He looked like… well Shirou wasn't sure what he looked like. He wasn't even entirely sure if it was a guy or not. The low cut, frilly purple top wasn't exactly something you see on guys often, nor was the flush and other makeup products. He looked to be around thirty or so years old, and his hair was dyed a bright green color. "If he wants to touch my sword, then I say, let him." The man gave Shirou the most unusual of smiles that made the boy flinch. "Just be sure to keep a nice, firm grasp on it, kitty cat."

…Suddenly Shirou wasn't so sure he wanted to keep holding the sword.

Kimura gave a tired sigh. "Since you're here now, that means my work is done. I'll be going to join the rest of my party." Kimura said to the odd man.

"Ah, that's too bad. It's so nice to have a big strong man like you around." The man replied with a wink.

"Commander, I respect your right to do whatever you want with your life. Please respect the fact that I don't want to have anything to do with it and stop with the sexual harassment." Kimura said.

"Fine, fine. You can go." The man said, waving him off. Kimura did go, leaving the new guys alone with this unusual individual. "Welcome, little kitty cats. My name is Brittany. I am the commanding officer, or 'boss' if you will, of the Altana Frontier Army's Reserve Force, Crimson Moon. You can call me 'commander' or Bri-chan. Whichever you use, make sure you use it affectionately, like a child to his mother. Got it?" Bri said, giving them all a wink. No one replied to his invitation to speak. "So, seven girls and five boys this time. That's too bad. Boys tend to be the better fighters."

"F…fighters?" One of the girls stammered out. A taller girl, nearly as tall as Shirou himself, with straight blond hair that was tied up in a pony tail, and a pair of rather thick glasses.

"So, we are being drafted into the reserve forces. Weird. Militia's usually aren't a standing army." Rin said, not sounding nearly as surprised as the others. Shirou supposed it should have been pretty obvious. Kimura did say that they were being taken there to find work. What other kind of work with the army give other than soldier jobs.

"Well, to tell you the truth, we are more like a mercenary group with direct ties to the army rather than a militia. Though we have always used the name 'volunteer soldiers'." Bri said with a shrug. "And it is volunteer only. You do have the right to decline the offer."

"Bullshit." Rin said with a half laugh. "If we decline then we will be on the streets with no money and nothing but the clothes on our backs. And I saw the faces of the business owner as we passed them by in the streets. They were trying very hard not to get our attention. We are easily spotted because of our clothes and you would think that since we would be obviously despair for money, they would approach us knowing that we would take whatever they would hand out, regardless how shitty. It's almost as if they have been pressured by some organization not to try to hire us."

The others in the group took a step away from Bri, scared yet again by Rin's words. Bri himself just looked at her with a slight smile. "You're being a little paranoid, no?"

"Paranoid keeps you alive." Rin countered. "So tell me, what does this job of yours require us to do? We've already established that this isn't a real reserve army. So what is it?"

"Oh, you think this job is a trap, but you still want it anyways?" Bri asked, seeming even more amused.

"Like I said, our only real options are to take the job or die. I just want everything out in the open." Rin replied, raising one of her hands and flipping back her hair a bit.

"You are going to go far in this business. Though in truth, they were only told to hold off on trying to nab you until after we had a chance to talk. You are free to decide you don't want what I am selling." Bri laughed before continuing his explanation. "Here on the frontier, we humans clash with the other races, and there are lots, and I mean lots, of things we call monsters." The smallest of the girls gave a squeak of alarm as she realized she was being told that she would be having to fight monsters. "The frontier army's job is to kill those monsters and protect our borders. But to be honest, it isn't an easy job. The frontier army has their hands full just maintaining Altana as a forward base. That's where we, the reserve force, come in."

"So while the main force protects the city, the reserve forces serve by performing population control on the enemies. Small units with hit and run tactics, not big enough to cause major damage, but stops the enemy from building up the forces needed to attack." Shirou said, taking a wild stab at it.

"To put it bluntly, yes." Bri said clapping his hands together and tilting his head to the side in an attempt to look cute… it wasn't. "Though if the city does come under attack we would be called on to defend it as well. But the offensive does consist of small operation teams which can move and react far more quickly than a large-scale army. A normal party consists of three to six members, with each group using their own wits, ability to collect information, and judgment when taking on enemies. This is how the Crimson Moon operates."

"I assume the average group of people you deal with coming out of the tower doesn't have any combat experience, since we don't have any memories. What kind of training and support can we expect to get from your organization?" Rin asked.

"Absolutely none at all." Bri said cheerfully.

Apparently, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for Rin, as she practically growled at the man. "Are you shitting me!? What the hell is this!? Never mind what I said before, the only thing you are offering is death! You crazy perverted bastard..!"

Bri's move was sudden. So sudden that Rin barely had time to react. The only hint of his intent was the fact that the smile had disappeared from his face. She jumped back, raising her arms as he lunged forward towards her, drawing a knife that had been hidden in his sleeve and thrusting it out towards where her throat had been.

Rin went for the wire concealed in her sleeve, not sure how much help the thin piece of brass would be in a situation like this, but more than willing to try anything to protect herself.

Though before she had the need to, Shirou was already between her and the called-out perverted bastard. Sword drawn, he caught man's thrust with the blade of the knife between the cross guard and the blade. Before Bri could react, Shirou's free hand shot up, striking the flat of his sword, twisting the knife out of the man's hand and sending it flying through across the room. Then, Shirou tried to bring the sword back around to slash at the man's midsection.

Luckily for Bri, disarming the knife had put Shirou's sword out of position, giving him enough time to recover his feet and jump backwards out of range of the blade. The man reached his right hand into his shirt's collar drawing a second knife concealed there, while the left-hand extended outwards, retrieving a third that had been up the sleeve. With the weapons in hand, he looked up at Shirou, grinned and moved on the offensive.

Shirou's eyes went over the blades in the man's hands, adding them to the rapidly growing pile that existed on that beach in his mind. The daggers were of a set of five that Bri had bought back in his days as a thief. The commander had been in the volunteer army for fifteen years. More than enough time to move from guild to guild, picking up skills and techniques everywhere he went. Though he finally settled on Paladin due to the tradition of the organization's leaders being as such, he was more than capable as a thief, warrior, priest, and mage as well. And by more than capable, Shirou meant a master.

The final two daggers were also on his body. One was in his left boot, while the other was in a second holster underneath his shirt. Apparently, the purple clothes that seemed both loose and tight at the same time made it easy to conceal weapons on his body. Shirou couldn't see the final two blades, but he could sort of perceive their existence to an extent.

As the weapons were added to his collection, he gained knowledge of how they were used, and how Bri would attack him with them. So, while the man was fast, and a master of dual wielding, Shirou was still able to hold his own against the rapid attacks. However, with the man's polished attack patterns, it was hard to get out of the defensive rut. It wasn't until Bri tried to lung forward in a simultaneous high and low strike with each blade that Shirou spotted his opening.

[Reverse Thrust]

A fairly standard technique used by both paladins and warriors who wield one-handed weapons. Thrusting out the blade while performing a retreat, breaking off the attacker's momentum while using the thrust to shoot off some energy which propels them further back in order to make distance. It wasn't a complex skill and was only meant for retreating. However, it acted as the set up for a much more devastating technique.

As Shirou landed a few feet back, his body twisted up, storing all of the backwards momentum up like a spring as he changed to a two-handed grip. Adding more energy into his muscles, he released all of it at once, lunging forward fast enough to rip the air. The point of his sword extended outwards, targeting a difficult to guard spot on Bri's lower stomach.

[Double Thrust]

With his footing compromised by the counter of his earlier lung, Bri couldn't avoid. He barely even had time to cross his blades in front of where Shirou's attack was going to land. The force of the boy's lung knocked him off of his feet, sending him tumbling backwards, but he had still managed to block it. Shirou kept moving forward, intent to finish it before the man could recover.

Trying to stop Shirou's forward progress and buy himself time to recover, Bri threw his knives straight at the boy, one aimed for each shoulder. If Shirou twisted his body right, he could have dodged them both, but that would have been giving up his opening. So instead he simple leaned a little to his left side. He used [Steel Guard] on his shirt sleeve, reinforcing the fabric until it was hard as steel, he swatted at the left-hand knife as the right hand one passed him by. The knife was of an extremely high quality, made from a metal that could only be obtained from a rare type of monster in the far north, and easily cut through the reinforced cloth, even though Shirou had avoided the edges as much as possible. However, the wound wasn't deep and Shirou hadn't been made to give up his advantage. Bri was on his back, no time to even try to roll to either side and Shirou's final one-handed thrust came towards him.

"Shirou, stop!" Rin shouted. Shirou did stop, his blade just two inches from the center of the commander's chest.

"He attacked you." Shirou said simply.

"He was only trying to humble me before. Not kill me. That would have been counterproductive for him." Rin said, sounding fairly calm about the whole thing. Shirou still didn't remove the tip of the blade from pointing at the man's chest. "If you kill him, it will complicate matters for all of us."

Shirou considered this. She did have a point. Giving a sigh, he withdrew the blade and took a few steps back, giving the man some room. "Sorry about that. Instinct." Shirou apologized and gave an honest attempt at a sheepish smile.

Bri stared at Shirou for a moment in disbelieve, before he broke out in a laugh. "My, my, it's been so long since I have had on my back with another man's sword in my face. And here I thought I was dealing with a bunch of harmless kitty cats. I didn't know there was a lion in their midst." He said as he pushed himself back up to his feet. "I know see why Kimura was so nervous about you. You really are different than the others. We always get one or two new recruits who are more aggressive than the others, but usually they are all bark and no bite. Nothing like you. I never thought I would ever be humbled by a rookie."

Bri smiled at him, with a hungry smile that made Shirou reconsider not killing the man. "She said your name is Shirou. Is that right?" The man asked, to which Shirou nodded in response. "Well then, that sword you're holding. Keep it. As a show of no hard feelings."

Shirou was genuinely surprised by that. From what he could tell the sword would be considered an extremely expensive item. Worth enough money for a man to live off of for years if he was careful. Well, if Bri was willing to give it, than he would be more than happy to take it. The blade was already growing on him, though he would have to find something to do with his left hand, since he wasn't going to be casting spells with it like the previous user had.

"Shirou, come here." Rin said, picking up one of the knives that had been thrown. "We need to take care of that wound before you lose too much blood." She was right again. While it was only a flesh wound, it still bled quite a bit. She took the knife to his sleeve, cutting it off and using it to make a sort of bandage around the cut around his lower arm.

It was funny. He was pretty sure he would never had let anyone get this close to him such a sharp knife. He had considered burning Kimura for having a sword in his presence while he had been unarmed. But for some reason he didn't feel any need to defend himself from Rin. Was it simply because she was a girl?

She tied the cloth tight around his arm, the pressure stopping most the bleeding for the moment. It wasn't the best of jobs, but considering the resources on hand it could hardly have been better.

"Well, not that that excitement is out of the way, where were we?" Bri said moving back towards the bar table. "Oh, right. You were asking about resources and training. Well, while the reserve forces won't give you any training or preparations itself, there are several places in town where you can get training and equipment. Figuring that stuff out will be your first task. If you can't manage that little bit of information gathering, than you aren't worth anything as a volunteer soldier anyways. The only thing that the Crimson Moon will be giving you if you join are these."

Bri produced a bag from under the counter and tipped its contents out onto the table. Ten silver coins fell out of the back onto the table top along with a sort of red coin on a string. "Ten silver coins will be enough to help you get started, so long as you are careful, and the red coin will be proof that you are a Crimson Moon trainee, so don't lose it. It will allow you to exit the city freely and will get you discounts at several of the establishments that you will need to get started, as well as housing discounts. These kinds of discounts will become better once you become full-fledged members of Crimson Moon, but the official badges will cost you twenty silver."

"You give us ten silver and then hope that later on we will pay you back twenty. You're gambling over whether or not we live long enough to play you back. And if you are only asking for twice as much as you are giving, then our chances of survival until we make the twenty silver can't be that bad." Rin commented, rubbing her chin.

"Most of the deaths actually come after that point. Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer after all. Though occasionally rookies get rather unlucky even when they are trying to be careful, but usually people die from biting off more than they can chew. Out of the two thousand people to join the reserves in the last fifteen years, around one thousand five hundred as still alive." Bri admitted openly that one in four parties tended to die. "Though your odds of survival are much better with the Reserve Forces than without. Jobs are not easy to come by and you won't find one that pays nearly as well. Nor would they give you money up front. You can turn my offer down, but then I won't be responsible when you turn up dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Well, at least you're being honest about the choice thing being bullshit." Rin said with a sigh. "Even in another world, you still can't get anywhere without money."

"Alright, I've said all I need to. So now make your choice." Bri said with a grin as he brought out twelve bags, each containing ten silver coins and a red coin.

"If the choices are between gambling my life or dying for sure, I think I'll take the gamble." Rin said, walking up to pick up one of the bags. Shirou was the next one, though several of the others were right behind them.

The bag felt rather light and Shirou just shoved it into his pocket. Ten silver didn't seem like that much money, but he was working with an advantage due to the sword and his odd ability to copy people's techniques. He was pretty sure that he could handle himself in a scrape with a bunch of monsters but… how exactly did this job work?

He didn't know where the monsters lived. He didn't know how to exchange what he killed for money. Even with all his advantages, he still didn't have enough information, though Bri made it clear he wasn't giving anymore handouts as far as information went.

While Shirou was pondering this, one of the girls in the group, a curvy brown-haired girl, latched herself onto Shirou's arm. "Please! I'll do anything you ask, just please let me be in your party!"

"…Huh?" Shirou said, not realizing what was going on at first. He had no idea what this girl's name even was and yet she was begging to be in a party with him. Then he realized that he had probably showed off a little too much when he had been trying to kill Bri.

Looking up at the other occupants in the room, most of them seemed to be staring at him with a mixture of fear and hope. Most likely scared of what he could do but hoping that he would party with them and they their futures would be slightly more secure.

"No one is going to be splitting up into parties." Rin said in her commanding voice, gathering everyone's attention. "Not yet at the very least. For now, information is the most valuable resource we can get, and it can best be obtained by everyone working together to gather it. How we are supposed to get our training, how we exchange services for money, where we can find housing and food, and what we can expect to face while fighting, until we answer these questions we shouldn't even consider dividing up into smaller groups. There is safety in numbers."

People exchanged glances before starting to nod in agreement. Though some waited until Shirou himself nodded his agreement. Knowledge was the most important aspect of all of this. Without it, there was no way any of them would survive.

By this point, everyone had grabbed on of the bags of money. Everyone except for the smallest child. However, it wasn't until she started to cry that anyone noticed. The blond girl with glasses approached the child and put and arm around her. "There there, Megumin. It's alright." She said to the smaller girl, whose name was apparently Megumin. Shirou didn't know how the blond knew this but it could have been that the small girl introduced herself earlier. He hadn't exactly been paying attention.

"No it's not! I can't do this! I can't!" The ten-year-old child had shorter brown hair and reddish-brown eyes. While the rest of the group was all wearing what Shirou would describe as casual clothing, this child was dressed in what appeared to be pajamas, as if whatever event that had spirited them all away had snatched her out of her bed. This all must seem like some kind of nightmare to her. The girl's parents must be horrified, wherever they are.

…The girl didn't even cry for her mother and father, because she couldn't even remember them.

It drove something home for Shirou. That beyond Rin, he had hardly even registered the existence of the rest of the group and hadn't cared for them in the slightest. He had only had thoughts for personal survival, barely considering the survival of others. A sense of guilt overwhelmed him and he wondered why he hadn't noticed it sooner.

He had an advantage over the others. That's what he had thought, but why the word advantage? Why had he been thinking that it was every man for himself?

Walking over to Bri, he took the final bag of money, surprising the man, before turning back and walking over to Megumin, he put a hand on her head, comforting her before holding out the bag for her to take. "Don't worry. If the monsters come, I'll keep you safe."

"R… really?" Megumin asked, looking up at Shirou with tears still rimming her eyes.

Shirou smiled down at her gently. "Yes. I promise."

Megumin wiped the tears away with her pajama sleeve before taking the bag of coins. "Thank you, onii-chan."

It felt like he was kicked in the stomach. 'Onii-chan'. Something told him that he had been called that before. Had he ever…

Shirou mind momentarily returned a blank as whatever force was surprising his memories acted again, trying to stop his train of thought. But with the girl staring up at him with her reddish-brown eyes, the thought finished anyways.

Had he had a family before? The ideas of mother and father felt mostly foreign to him, but when the girl had called him onii-chan it had felt familiar somehow. Had he had a little brother or sister before?

"Alright, now that that is taken care of we should all get to work. We'll split up into teams of two and go ask around for information. Since the sun has only just risen, most shopkeepers' businesses should still be relatively slow. While you should ask anyone you can for advice, focus on shops that sell weapons and outdoor equipment, any place that looks like it exchanges goods, and any tavern where soldiers might gather. Best questions involve training, housing, and equipment. Ask about five or six people and then come back here." Rin started, giving people a run down of what to look for. "Remember that we all look different than everyone else, and that this isn't the first time this has happened. Everyone will know that we are completely clueless, and they will also know about the ten silver. So if anyone offers you can kind of deal, don't take it. If you get scammed, you might end up completely screwed and I don't know if we would be able to help you at all without just going down with you. Understood?"

Some of the others swallowed hard and nodded. They broke into their pairs, no one seeming to complain that Shirou had paired up with Megumin, and they all started to move out. It wasn't until they were exiting that Bri noticed something.

"Hey, my knives!" The commanded said, finally noticing that Rin had taken the three knives that he had been using earlier.

"Consider them payment for me stopping Shirou from skewering your ass, commander pervert!" Rin shouted back as she left the build.

Bri was momentarily stun before he broke out laughing again. "That little kitty cat sure does like to hiss a lot." He said to himself. He didn't really feel that much attachment to the old things, and while they were valuable, he could afford to replace them.

Perhaps he was just still giddy from his earlier scrap. How long had it been since another man had him on his ass? Akira could, but he hadn't wanted to play with Bri ever since he got married.

Sure, Bri hadn't had his sword and shield, which would have served him far better than the knives, but that didn't change the fact that the boy had been unusually skilled. He had fought more like a trained Paladin with a few years under his belt and a willingness to kill, rather than a bleary-eyed and squeamish recruit. Bri had lost to a day one rookie, fair and square. He supposed it was only natural that they get to grab his junk. That was pretty close to the way life worked for a volunteer soldier.

"I'm going to need to keep an eye on this bunch." The odd man said to himself with a smile. "Who knows, maybe I'll be able to go another round with the cute red-head another day."

* * *

 **I tried to bait Farra Gate into updating his Fate of Fantasy and Ash story, but instead he rebooted his Game of Thrones crossover. Sad days.**

 **Hey, GradationAir87, while you give into the bait?**

* * *

 **Someone asked if all of the twelve are going to be characterize. The answer is no. Only the people who are going to stick around and the trouble makers will be. The rest of them will just remain mostly blank individuals. After things are set up there will be a time skip to when the more average party members start their own group, leaving Shirou and Rin to take care of those who were falling behind.**

* * *

 **For those of you who haven't already guessed, Megumin is a reference to another anime, and will be loosely based on that character. Meaning that she will be a mage who early on with see another mage casting the Blasting spell (A magic spell that creates a large explosion somewhere within the line of sight of the caster. Starting at an explosion with a radius of four feet, but can have more mana sunk into it to increase it to something like a twenty foot radius.) and finds that it is the only variety of magic that she is really good at.**

 **Explosion magic will be just as effective as you would assume. Meaning lots of friendly fire, completely destroying all the loot, creating the threat of forest fires, making an extremely loud noise that attracts every enemy within a mile of its position, and of course it is too expensive for a new mage to use so that the girl can only cast it once a day before having to be carried home. Plus the problems with using it in places like caves where you could collapse the ceiling.**

 **Anyone who plays D &D will tell you that fireball is an extremely powerful spell, but using it is likely to kill you and your party due to unforeseen consequences. **


	3. Chapter 3

"Get lost kid. I'm busy and you're a waste of time."

"Oh… sorry." Shirou said uncomfortably as he was turned away by yet another individual who he had kindly asked for information. This particular man made the twelfth time this had happened. "This is a lot harder than I thought it would be."

As it turned out, Shirou was terribly at talking to people. He didn't understand why, but half the people he approached seemed to hate him on sight and if they didn't hate him on sight, they quickly got annoyed or creeped out once he started to talk to them. It seemed that for all his skills with a sword managed to gain the attention of the group, he couldn't do the same thing with words. He had absolutely no charisma at all when dealing with normal people.

"What are we going to do now?" Megumin asked him quietly. She was doing better than before, but still wasn't up to talking to random strangers in the street. Especially after seeing how unfriendly they were towards Shirou.

"I suppose we will just have to go back to headquarters and hope that the others had better luck than we have." Shirou said, feeling defeated. It would be embarrassing to face Rin having gained no information at all save for what he had seen in people's weapons. To admit to her that he had absolutely no skill with words when she could so easily capture everyone's attention with hers. Shirou was half convinced that there was some kind of magic in her voice that made people turn their heads when she was speaking.

They were about to go back down the street when someone in street shouted at them. "Oy, rookie! You with the red hair and the midget!"

"M…midget?" Megumin squeaked, realizing that the person was talking to Shirou before even Shirou did. Shirou himself had to think for a second before remembering that his hair was indeed red. He hadn't considered his own appearance as one of the things to try to remember after he woke up.

He turned to see who was shouting at them and immediately saw a taller man who appeared to be in his late twenties with a scruffy goatee, a knitted cap, and a thick fur lined coat that made him stick out like a sore thumb in the more normal crowd. A huge grin was spread across his face as he walked up towards them, though his eyes seemed to be looking at something much lower than Shirou's face. He had spotted the sword at Shirou's hip.

Likewise, Shirou had spotted the weapons that this man had been carrying, a bow with full quiver and a pair of curved short swords.

Megumin moved behind Shirou as the man came closer and Shirou put his hand on the sword's hilt. The draw would be awkward with the reverse grip, but he wouldn't have time to properly draw the sword if the man went for the shorter blades at his side.

"I thought I recognized that sword. It's one of the ones that belonged to the commanders before Bri-chan… or was it the commander before that one? I forget." The man said sounding positively ecstatic. "So why is it that a boy like you's got it? Something telling me you didn't steal it. You wouldn't be so stupid as to walk around with it in plain sight if you had. So that means that the old faggot have gone and given it to you. Now why would he do that?"

"I suppose I must have impressed him." Shirou said cautiously. He also wanted to criticize the man for using such crude language in front of Megumin but felt like he shouldn't do anything that might drive the man away. This was after all the furthest Shirou had ever gotten in a conversation with someone in known memory… as absolutely pathetic as that was.

The man burst out laughing. "Impressed him. Come on give me more than that, I'm dying here from curiosity." He said before opening one hand and slapping his fist on top if it in the general manner of someone who had just realized something. "Oh, I know, you two are fresh from the tower, right? That would mean that you are looking for someone to be telling you how crap works around these parts. How about I buy you and the little girly some drinks and you tell me how comes Bri-chan took such a fancy towards you. After that, I'll tell you everything you need to know about getting started in this profession."

"Really?" Shirou said, surprised by the blatant offer to give him exactly what he wanted at the moment.

"Sure! After all, I've been in this business for over ten years. It's only natural that I be looking out for my juniors." The man said, puffing out his chest with pride. "So, what's your names be?"

"I'm Shirou, and this is Megumin." Shirou said, introducing himself and Megumin, since the girl was unlikely to do it herself.

"Really!? That's a damn fine coincidence! I'm Kuro! You know what they say about opposites attracting and all!" He said, thrusting out his hand to shake Shirou's. "Boy, something tells me we are going be the best of friends."

Why was it that Shirou could only attract the weird ones?

* * *

 **Important Interrupt!**

 **Currency in Grimgar**

 **100 copper = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold**

 **No it isn't a true gold based system, because if it was 100 silver pieces wouldn't be equal to one gold. It is more like the modern system, only still using coins.**

 **I'm going to insert this here so that people have a perspective about just how much money they get and how much things cost. A meal in our world would be around 8 dollar, which translates into 4 coppers in their world. So 10 silver is around 2,000 dollars. A gold piece would be worth 20,000 dollars. This also fits with housing prices since a good room would cost 50 copper per night and a good hotel room in a big city would be around 100 dollars a night.**

 **The cost of training and receiving the second hand equipment from the guild is 8 silver or 1,600 dollars. So while some of you might say that the training they get is cheap compared to the actual value, it really isn't. You could buy almost all of the equipment they are given (save for the warrior class) for less than 200 dollars if it is all second hand, which means that they are paying around 200 dollars a day for training. It is expensive.**

 **More experienced volunteer soldiers just make a lot of money and have a lot of expenses. Making 8 silver not seem like much.**

 **This also allows you to know just how badly scammed Haruhiro was when he was made to pay 25 coppers or 50 dollars for a second hand pair of underwear. =O There was a damn good reason why it seemed too expensive, that was because it was. They just knew that he only had his one pair and would be willing to pay whatever they asked him for it.**

* * *

"Thank you for your help. I'll be sure to come back sometime, once I manage to get settled in." Rin promised, giving the vender a kind smile. It earned her some free food to go with the information she had just managed to milk out of him. She walked back to Sara, the blond girl with the thick glasses, who she had ended up pairing up with during the search for information.

The girl was rather timid, more often that not seeming to be on the verge of biting her nails, but that didn't really matter at the moment. Even if she was too unsure of herself to talk to people, Rin was more than capable of getting others to talk to her.

Rin split the kebab she had been given with the girl before starting to walk towards the next destination, Yorozu's Bank. It seemed that most exchanges, either in currency or selling random items, were done through them, and Rin wanted to sell the daggers as soon as possible, since carrying them around was awkward. While she walked, she considered their situation, trying to make sure she was looking at the wider picture rather than just focusing on the moment by moment like she had been before.

Rin had not originally suggested that they all remain in the same group for the time being out of the kindness of her heart or the concern for others. She had done it because she had recognized the same thing that everyone else had, that being in a party with Shirou would make their lives a lot easier. Though she would argue that she had realized it long before they had. From the moment they had first introduced themselves to each other, she could tell he was the kind of person who was reliable, she just hadn't been aware of just how reliable he really was until he pulled out a sword and took down what was probably one of the best fighters in the city. The problem was, as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't have been sure that he would have partied with her if they had decided on a group then and there.

While Rin had no doubts that she had talents that far exceeded the rest of the people in the group… she actually had no idea what those talents might be. After all, she had no memories. She seemed to be good at talking and pretty smart, but Shirou might just find that annoying for all she knew. It wasn't like she knew him well, they had just met. If he was looking for people who were strong to be in his group, then the boys were bigger than she was, and some of the girls were as well. If he would pick a girl based on sex appeal… well, Rin wasn't about to make assumptions about her own attractiveness, but she didn't want to gamble on Shirou's tastes in women. Some of those girls had pretty large breasts and she was…

There was more to being attractive than just BREAST SIZE!

…Where did that come from?

Anyways, she had wanted to stop Shirou from choosing who was to be in his party long enough for her to prove that she was the best for the job. Whatever that job may be.

It wasn't until Megumin started to cry that Rin began to register a few things. Such as that what Bri had been setting up with his talk about parties was a survival of the fittest scenario. One where the weak die so that the remaining individuals would be better off. And in such a scenario, sweet little Megumin would almost certainly die. She was clearly too young for anyone to have any use for her. She would have been left behind as all of the parties that were made couldn't afford to have her dragging them down.

Rin had been shocked that she had overlooked something that was so obvious. Then that shock turned to suspicion. Had she overlooked it, or had she been made to overlook it?

It was already clear to everyone that something was suppressing their memories. Was it too much of a stretch to think that it was suppressing their thoughts and morality as well? While it was true that most of the group had been in a sort of panic, they were still more than capable of deciding then and there to join the army and risk their lives fighting monsters. It wasn't exactly something the average person should have been able to come to terms with so quickly. Perhaps more naturally pragmatic and calmer people like herself and Shirou were even more susceptible to such things, as they were always prepared to move and make decisions.

It would explain why she had been tunnel visioning towards joining Shirou's party to the point of ignoring morality, and why Shirou could decide to use lethal force against anyone who seemed like a threat at the drop of a hat.

As she thought about it, she realized she didn't really care that she was now stuck in another world with no way to go home.

That was kind of a big thing to just stop caring about.

There was something seriously wrong with them. Wrong with this world. She didn't know if it was something in the air, that bloody moon, or that damned tower that brought them there, but something was messing with their minds.

She had decided that this would be her goal, figuring out what the hell was going on and trying to find a way back to where they had come from. Unfortunately, she would still need money if she wanted to live long enough and have the resources required to figure it out, which meant she would still be joining the volunteer soldiers.

She would start by joining the Mage's Guild. The basic training that they gave to new members would hopefully give her some knowledge about how magic functioned which would help out in the long run. After she built up her basic knowledge and guaranteed their livelihood, she would start to focus her research around the tower and anything that seemed to serve the same purpose.

This would be her reason for living. Every breath didn't matter save for that it allowed her to take one step closer to achieving it. She would etch it onto her soul so that whatever it was that was messing around with her head wouldn't manage to take it away from her.

And if all else failed, and it looked like she would never figure it out, or that her memories and resolve would fade away forever, she would find a way to destroy that tower, so that there could never be another Megumin. This she swore on her family crest.

Rin stopped in her step as something she had just thought was whipped away from her, leaving behind a prolonged feeling of emptiness. What had she just thought? She was swearing to one day destroy the tower if she couldn't find a way to get them home. She remembered that… so what was it that she had just forgotten.

Most people probably would have felt despair at how powerless they were against this force that so effortlessly controlled them, but Rin, she only felt pissed and more determined than ever. Fuck this world. It wouldn't beat her.

"Rin, are you alright? Is something the matter?" Sara asked her, looking down at Rin, since she was around seven or eight inches taller than her. Five foot three was pretty average height for a girl, or so Rin felt, but Sara was just so much taller it made the rest of the girls look short by comparison. Even among the boy's only Shirou and Riku were taller, and only by a little bit.

"Not at all, I was just thinking that we should probably keep one of the knives in case someone decides to join the Thief's Guild. It's probably of a pretty high quality. What do you think?" Rin said with a smile that seemed completely natural. It seemed like she was good at that. Saying whatever she needed to in order to put people at ease, or get a strong reaction out of them, depending on her objective.

"Oh. I don't know. A good weapon might be nice, but do you think we will need something of high quality if we are just fighting the beginner level enemies. It might just be a waste if the monsters don't have much armor or thick skin." Sara reasoned, pressing her fingers together as she mumbled her words.

"Hm, good point. The money probably would be more handy right now than a weapon that will probably give way to wear and tear before it is truly useful. Especially when we will need to purchase skills that will require time to master." Rin agreed. Sara was decently smart, though she lacked confidence in herself. After they had managed to gather information about the seven different guilds, while Rin had declared she would become a Mage, Sara had made noises about maybe going for Paladin. She figured that since she was taller than the other girls, she should probably take one of the more physical roles and leave the mage and priest classes for the other girls.

They had already been warned that the Mage's Guild's skills in particular were absolutely useless unless you sank a little more money into it, with the first spell that they are all taught being hardly more effective than a strong punch. It was only after you chose your school of elemental magic that you actually learned anything that was helpful on the battlefield, but after that it became one of the most important roles for a strong initial strike against an unsuspecting group of enemies, as well as crowd control and finishers once the fighting really started, depending on their school of magic.

A mage could learn an elementary level spell for the price, ranging from around sixty copper coins to a silver coin or two, intermediate level spells' costs range from two to ten silver coins, and a single advanced level spell could cost anywhere from fifteen silver up to a whole twenty gold coins.

This was Rin's ultimate hope for money she would make selling the knives, purchasing at least two additional spell for any of their mages so they could actually participate in a fight, one offensive and one support. Though it was unlikely that she would be able to make enough. From what she could see in the streets, used daggers were only worth around fifteen copper pieces per knife. Though since Bri's were of a high quality, she was hoping to get at least a silver for the three of them.

The only question was, how many of the others in their group would fight her over it? It might simply be better not to tell any of them how much the daggers sold for or lie if they asked. That might make things complicated if they did happen to find out. Avoiding resentment in these kinds of groups is important. While convincing them to work together had been simple enough, convincing them of the best allocation of the groups extra money would be much more difficult when that was in such short supply and the thing most on everyone's mind.

Yorozu's Bank was a large was a large stone building with no real windows or decorations outside save for a sign bearing the banks name in golden letters. It was a strange building in that it was both grand and rather lowkey at the same time.

Sara decided to stay outside and play with a cute little animal that was lazing about the entrance. Rin didn't know the name of the animal, which meant it probably hadn't existed in her previous world, but it made purring and meowing sounds like a cat and was fairly cute.

Sara hadn't wanted to go into Yorozu's anyways. Based on people's description, the current Yorozu, which was apparently a title given to the bank's owner, was an extremely judgmental child of age ten with an over inflated ego and who constantly went on about her perfect memory. And since her memory was so perfect, if you made a bad first impression it would stick with you forever. Sara didn't want to have to deal with that kind of stress at the moment. She was stressed enough as it was.

Rin was in luck, in that it was still very early in the day and most people wouldn't be visiting the bank until later, so it took almost no time at all for her to be called forward for her turn to see a representative. Though as he luck would have it, she found herself face to face with the egocentric child herself.

Rin had to stop herself from laughing when she saw the girl in her enormous leather armchair, dressed in extremely flashy red and gold clothes and wearing a golden monocle. She just looked absolutely ridiculous, and the long ornate tobacco pipe didn't help. It was like a little kid playing pretend at being an adult.

But Rin schooled her expression and proceeded in a professional manner, determined to make a good first impression and hopefully avoid problems with the brat in the future.

Yorozu looked at Rin and took a puff on the pipe before speaking. "I've never seen you before. First time?"

"That's correct. I'm one of the new Crimson Moon Trainees." Rin said in her relaxed manner.

"Figured as much. The day of your arrival matches up, and your clothes aren't from around here. Not much else you could be." The girl than stood up on her chair and puffed out her tiny little chest. "I am Yorozu, fourth generation. I flawlessly memorize the first names, last names, facial appearances, deposits and balances, and all other transactions of all clients. Though I also keep paper records for the sake of those who lack my perfect memory."

'Don't laugh… don't laugh…' Rin kept reminding herself as the girl did her self-aggrandizing little speech. She wondered if the girl had memorized that too. She probably had. 'Don't laugh!'

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm afraid that I don't recall any last name, so I hope Rin will do. If not, I'm sure I could make one up if necessary." Rin said, keeping her cool.

"No, that is fine. We are more than used to dealing with people from the forbidden tower. Your lack of a family name will not cause any problems." Yorozu said as she brought out a notebook and started to scribble down information for making Rin's account records. "Done. Now you may begin your business with Yorozu's Bank."

"Excellent. I would like to have some items appraised and exchanged." Rin said, bringing forward the knives. "I have already been told about your fees, so don't worry. I accept the price of doing business."

"Well, that saves me the trouble of having to repeat them." Yorozu said as she glanced down at the knives. "Aren't those Commander Brittany's knives? Why do you have them?"

"There was a bit of a fight between him and one of my party and he lost. I believe that makes these ours. You don't have to worry. He is fully aware that I took them." Rin said with a sly smile.

Yorozu quirked an eyebrow of her own. "Let me guess, someone called out Commander Faggot for being a pervert and he took offense. Happens every month. Though I never thought I'd hear that someone had finally beat his ass for a change." Yorozu said. Rin was glad for the excuse to laugh, though she kept it as in control as she could. "Well, if the bastard wants them back I suppose he will just have to buy them back from Yorozu's later. They are worth fifteen silver a piece, so after paying our one percent fee, your total is forty-four silver and fifty-five copper pieces."

Rin twitched slightly at the casual declaration of the amount. It was far more than she had dared to hope. "Is something the matter?" Yorozu asked, seeing the reaction.

"Nothing at all. I'm just a bit surprised at how quickly you managed to appraise their value. I would have thought it would have required a closer look." Rin said, coming up with an excuse.

"These items were appraised years ago and their value hasn't changed since. The type of metal used in them is rare to say the least as it can only be harvested from a particular type of monster in the far north. The value would be higher if they weren't mixed with iron, but at the time of creation, Brittany hadn't been practicing magic yet, so he wouldn't have given up the structural strength of the metal alloy in order to allow for mages to wield it." Yorozu said, showing that she really had memorized everything there was to know about the knives in question.

"Wow, I'm impressed." Rin said truthfully. Then she thought of something. "I assume you have been inside of the Red Moon Headquarters at least once, correct? Do you happen to know the one hand sword that was on display near the west side window nearer to the staircase?"

"Yes, I know the sword you are talking about. It is a piece from a previous commander twenty-two years, three months and twelve days back." Yorozu said with a nodded, taking another puff on her pipe.

"Out of curiosity, do you know how much that was worth?" Rin asked.

Yorozu scratched her chin as she thought about it. "So long as it is in the same condition it was in before. Then it would be worth…"

Rin jaw dropped open when she heard the amount.

125 gold coins!

Apparently, the commander had REALLY taken a liking to Shirou.

* * *

 **Before anyone asks, no one is trying to rob Shirou. Kuro is actually a genuinely good guy in the canon, who just happens to be in a party that all look like thugs and have serious personality quirks. He always looks out for his juniors and isn't any kind of pedo or anything... he just wants to kidnap Yume and make her his teams pet/mascot. Is that so wrong?**

 **It's not like Renji didn't do the same thing when he decided to take Chibi onto his team. Either that or he was a genuinely good person who realized that Chibi might die if left alone... Unless Renji is a pedophile... No, that can't be right, he only has ass for Bri-chan.**


	4. Chapter 4

Sherry's Tavern was a common hang out for people from the volunteer army, large enough to host two hundred people, which was why it was packed to the bursting almost every night. However with it only just approaching midday, and the soldiers out in the field trying to make their living, the place still had a few empty tables.

Shirou and Megumin sat on one side of the table while Kuro sat on the other. The older soldier had called for their drinks and some snacks for the little girl before they got to talking. The man had reluctantly agreed to allow Megumin to order milk rather than mead but had insisted that Shirou drink something strong with him.

Shirou had kept his explanation of what had happened between him and Bri to a simple summary, explaining the circumstances for the fight's start, the equipment they had at their disposal, and the basics of how the fight went down. He didn't say anything about his unusual reactions to the weapons he saw. He felt that was information to be kept to himself.

It hadn't really been a long story, but before Shirou was even done telling it, Kuro had started on his third flagon of mead, and was openly laughing. "Ha! Serves that old faggot right! He's always lashing out at people every time he's called out about his perverted behavior, and I'm glad to hear that someone finally handed him his ass for a change! Good on you, kid! Though I got to admit, you must be something scary if you can beat that queer bastard. I can't remember the last time someone actually managed to get the best of him. Must have been a good four or five years."

"In all fairness, he was working with only his knives. If he had his sword and shield instead, the fight would probably have gone a lot different." Shirou said, feeling like it was a force of habit to try to put his victories, no matter how trivial or grand, in the proper perspective. No good ever came from becoming full of yourself. Bri had been stronger than him, and his body was more used to using the skills that Shirou had been copying. If they had been fighting on even footing instead of Shirou having the weapon with the superior reach, then life would have been much harder. Even as things were, the only reason Shirou got such a good opening on the man was because Bri had underestimated him and believed that he wouldn't have been able to counter attack, so he over-committed on the final lung.

"No need to be humble. You should wear that victory as a badge of pride!" Kuro said, waving his drink around and causing it to splash about as he did so.

"Pride usually comes before the fall. I'd rather avoid it." Shirou said with a bit of a cheeky smile. He found himself actually liking Kuro. He was loud, immature, and seemed to have a bit of a drinking problem, but he had a familiar feel about him. Like everything else, Shirou couldn't place it, but it felt natural to be talking, or at least exchanging quips, with him when compared to the people Shirou had tried to talk to on the street. "Now, if I have satisfied your curiosity, would you mind telling me what you promised us before?"

"Oh, sure. Technically I'm not supposed to, since commander faggot wants all you kids to have to struggle for your first few weeks to build character and weed out the weak, but I've never really seen eye to eye with him on that. What's the point of a senpai who doesn't look out for his juniors?" Kuro said with a shrug. "Still, I can't promise you that I'll tell you the truth."

"Just saying that already proves your more trustworthy than the commander was." Shirou said, before waiting for the man to continue.

"Alright, first thing you need to do is join a guild. There are seven different combat focused guilds in the city. Joining costs eight silver, which will eat up most of what you were given to start with, but you don't really get a choice. Even if you can handle yourself without the training, if you aren't in one of the guilds then you will quickly find that no one will do business with you, and you will be in deep shit." Kuro explained. "Anyways, when you join the guild you will get some basic training and some second-hand equipment to help get you started. The training will last for seven days, during which they will put you up. After that, you can go out hunting. With me so far?"

Shirou nodded, so the man continued. "Alright, the guilds you can choose from are the Warrior's Guild, the Priest's Guild, the Paladin's Guild, the Mage's Guild…"

"Mages!?" Megumin shouted, her eyes widening as she stood up on her stool. "Mages, as in real mages, with magic and everything!?"

Kuro blinked at her, seeming confused by her outburst before starting to laugh. "Sorry, I've been in this world so long that I forgot how surprising it was to first hear that magic really exists in this world. Yeah, real mages with real magic." Seeing how interested Megumin had suddenly become, Kuro decided to entertain her a bit by telling her a bit about magic. "Though mages aren't the only ones to use magic. Priests use magic as well, and so do Paladins and Dread Knights, though to a lesser extent. Priests and Paladins use light magic, which is mostly about healing and defensive blessings, while Dread Knights make contracts with demons and use dark magic. As for mages, they use Elemental magic which is some pretty neat stuff. They can't heal anything but depending on the kind of Elementals they can contact they can produce all kinds of effects, and eventually they can summon up Elementals to fight for them, just like a Dread Knight can with a demon."

"Of course, elves and dwarves have their own schools of magic, but they guard them pretty seriously. You'd have to really do something impressive before an elf would be willing to teach you how to be a Shaman... They also need to be finding you physically pleasing, if you catch my drift." Kuro added with a shake of the head. He might have even sounded a little bitter.

"There are elves!?" Megumin shouted, her eyes seeming to shine like stars. Shirou wasn't really as surprised to hear about magic, but hearing that elves and dwarves walked around in this world was a bit of a lurch for him.

"Yeah. They're kind of stuck up and obsessed with beauty, but they are at least peaceful with us. You probably won't have an opportunity to see them for a few months. But if you and your party do well, you might get a chance to the elves' forests or the Iron Mountains of the dwarves." Kuro admitted. "Anyways, the last three guilds are the Thief's Guild, the Hunter's Guild, and the Dread Knight's Guild… though take my advice and think long and hard before you join the Dread Knights."

"Why's that?" Shirou asked.

"Well, it's because once you do decide to become a Dread Knight, there is no going back. While the other guilds will let you quit if you want, some even letting you rejoin after you have quit once, the Dread Knight's Guild is different. If you try to quit it, they will hunt you down and execute you." Kuro said seriously. Megumin shifted about uncomfortably at the mention of execution. "Also, Dread Knights… I'm not going to say that there aren't some of them that are alright fellas, but a majority of them are kind of weirdos."

…This man was calling them weird? Alright then, avoid the Dread Knight's Guild at all cost. "So then, which Guild do you suggest we join?" Shirou asked.

"Well, a good party is supposed to have a little of everything. But it is believed that the most important classes are the Priests and Warriors. Priests are probably the most important, as their healing magic and defensive blessings lessen the chance that one small mistake could cost you your life, but most Priests find it difficult to properly defend themselves or kill strong enemies." Kuro said, starting to list out the classes and their individual jobs. "Warriors are your more balanced frontline fighters, while Paladin's are more defensive and Dread Knights are more offensive focused. The frontline fighters are to distract or take out any enemy that tries to get at the backline, which will usually be your Mages and Priests. Mages provide ranged support, hitting enemies hard from faraway or doing some kind of binding to keep them still long enough for the frontline fighters to finish the job. A good strategy will usually involve a mage casting a larger spell to injure or restrain multiple enemies as part of an ambush. Thieves could best be described as opportunist fighters, not really fighting the enemy head on, but hanging back and lunging in whenever they see a good chance to kill or cripple a target. They also serve outside of the fighting by scouting the area and perhaps sabotaging the enemy before the fight even starts. Finally, Hunters are the all-around guys. They both scout and fight in any capacity that is needed, both long range and short range, frontal assaults and sneak attacks. Though like most jack-of-all-trades, they tend to be a little worse at everything than the people who specialize. They can track better than a thief, but finding the enemy usually isn't the problem, it is going unnoticed yourself."

"The little girly should probably either join the Priests or Mages. All of the other classes require you to have a bit of physical strength in order to pull some of the things off." Kuro said, pointing at Megumin.

"Mage!" Megumin said immediately. "Do I get to wear a witch's hat?"

"You sure do." Kuro chuckled before glancing at Shirou. "What about you?"

"…Not sure. I'll have to discuss it with the others." Shirou said as he considered his options. "Something tells me that I won't make a very good Mage or Priest… though I don't remember why. As for the others, I'm already fairly good with weapons, so if I am getting to get training, it should be with something I don't already know. Thief or Hunter would be best for that." Actually, the Hunter's Guild really did appeal to him, he liked the idea of being able to operate with both long range and short-range weaponry without anyone giving him strange looks.

"Don't go turning up your nose at the Guilds' training too quickly. There is more to it than just swinging your sword around." Kuro said with a knowing smile, not knowing that Shirou already knew very well what he was referring too.

"You're in the Hunter's Guild, aren't you, Kuro-senpai?" Megumin asked the man.

Kuro shook his head sadly. "Good guess. I used to be, but I was too much of a black-sheep to follow the White Goddess, and though I still offer her my prayers and thank her for her protection, I left it to join the Warrior's Guild."

"Then why do you still have a bow? Does the Warrior's Guild use bows too?" Megumin asked, with a confused tilt of the head.

"Not a chance! They all call me as sniveling coward for even having one. Not that I ever cared what those idiots think. I didn't join the Warrior's Guild in order to swing some oversized sword around. I joined it in order to pick up a particular skill." Kuro said before downing what was left in his drink. "I'd tell you what that skill is, but that would be against the Guild's rules and I'd get in trouble."

"You're referring to the [Steel Guard] ability." Shirou said, causing Kuro to freeze. "You draw your bow to its fullest before strengthening it with [Steel Guard], greatly increasing the power behind your arrows. Then by strengthening your arrows to be as hard as steel, you can punch holes straight through an armored enemy."

"How… in the world..?" Kuro mumbled, his eyes widening, but then he just started to laugh again. "In the last four years, not a single person has realized the secret to my success, and then you just say it so casually. Kind of hurts a man's pride."

"I told you that pride comes before the fall." Shirou said with a small smirk.

"How do you even know about [Steel Guard] anyways? It's not a high-end skill, but it is still something that only people from the Warrior's Guild should know. So how do you know it?" Kuro asked Shirou, his grin widening as his interests were piqued.

"Would you believe me if I told you I have no idea?" Shirou replied.

Kuro snorted in amusement. "I just might. I've been known to be gullible."

Kuro then continued his explanation, telling them about the bank and exchanging goods, as well as the cheap as dirt barracks in the slums where they could get housing. Though it would only become free to them once they get a proper Volunteer Forces Badge, till then it would be ten coppers a night for four people. Then he pulled out some paper and made a map of the nearby area for them, telling them the best hunting grounds for beginners and what land formations they could use to their advantage. He also marked an Orc observation outpost on the map, telling them to stay away from it for at least the two months, though probably for more. Orcs weren't something rookies should try to deal with, since they were about as smart as humans and even stronger. Not to mention that the outpost would have around a thousand of them. Too densely populated for casual hunting.

Shirou was surprised that one of humanity's greatest enemies seemed to have an outpost no more than thirty minutes jog from the city's front gate. You would think that they would have done something about that, but apparently it just wasn't worth the effort to take, since the Orcs could just as easily take it back.

Once Kuro was done with his explanations, he handed the map over to Shirou who put it in his pocket and then they shook hands. "Thank you for all your help, Kuro-senpai."

"If you kids need a hand, just give your old Senpai a holler. Can't promise I will help, but you never know." Kuro said with a shrug and a grin.

"Um… Onii-chan." Megumin mumbled. Shirou looked down to see the small girl squirming around a bit. "I… I think I drank too much milk."

Kuro quirked an eyebrow. "Does the little girly need to take a squat?" He said with absolutely zero tact at all. Megumin flushed, but nodded. "Alright, Sherry's got a pot you can use for that."

Kuro lead them over to a back room that had a large brass pot for people to do there business in. Megumin turned green as she saw the contents of it and had to hold her breath as she went in, closing the door behind her.

"You'd almost think she never taken a crap before." The man mumbled as he lend up against the wall.

"I… don't think that people did it in pots in our old world." Shirou said.

"Really? Then what the hell did they use?" Kuro blinked in surprise before tilting his head and making a face like he was thinking hard. "Hm… you're right. Can't really remember. But it feels like your right. Honestly, I've just accepted the way life was a long time ago. Hardly even think about the fact that there was a previous world for me. There's just this one."

Shirou nodded, understanding what the man meant about living in the moment. However, now that Megumin wasn't there to hear him, there was one final question that Shirou wanted to ask. "Kuro-senpai, how many volunteer soldiers are there?"

"How many?" Kuro repeated the question before thinking about it. "Probably around eight hundred active soldiers in the city right now, with another hundred or two scattered throughout the frontier. Why you ask?"

Shirou huffed. "Because the commander told us that there were over a thousand five hundred still alive out of the two thousand who had joined in the last fifteen years."

"Is that so." Kuro frowned. "Well then, I should tell you that two thousand people have appeared out of the tower in the last fifteen years, but that doesn't make up all of the volunteer forces' recruits. Some people who were born in this world join, either out of a sense of honor, or adventure, or because they were kicked out of the real army, or out of simple desperation for the money. So the real total for the number of recruits to join in the last fifteen years would be closer to three thousand than two."

"So, while the Commander tried to make it sound like the survival rate was seventy five percent in order to not scare us off, the real survival right is around thirty percent." Shirou said with a sigh. "Not that it changes anything. We still need the money if we want to survive in this world."

"Two hundred gold." Kuro said simply before adding context. "That's what most volunteer soldiers set as their goal. Once you make that two hundred gold, you will have enough money to retire and live a comfortable life. I'd say there are probably only a couple dozen people who have managed to save it up and then actually retired. Most of those are Dread Knights whose parties all mysteriously died, leaving them with all the wealth their group had managed to put together… Not that anyone can prove anything."

"How close are you?" Shirou asked the veteran of ten years.

"Close enough to worry 'bout the fact that there is a Dread Knight in my party." Kuro said with a worried chuckle. "Luckily he is more motivated by boobs than money. His stated goal in life is to 'taste all the different flavors of women'. I doubt he cares about retiring so long as he can keep running into new pretty young girls. I've got a hundred and twenty-seven gold save up. I could probably make the rest of it in another five or six months if I rushed it, but that's the trap isn't it. Being in such a rush to get to safety that you end up in the Black Wolf's jaws before you realize that you are no long the one doing the hunting.

"Besides, retirement isn't for everyone. Lots of people have made the money but just kept going. I don't think I could live with myself if I retired, not after everything I've done and seen. I'll just keep on hunting until the day that I die and go happy knowing that I protected my cute little juniors the best I could." Suddenly, his twenty-six years looked very old indeed as his eyes lost their focus and his smile faded away.

"…Is your name really Kuro, or is that just something you call yourself?" Shirou asked the man. He seemed to follow a religion where the White Goddess is the ultimate form of good and the Black God is the truest evil. For he himself to have been named 'Black' was an odd coincidence.

The smile returned to the man's face. "Boy, you really should just mind your own business. You've got enough problems on your own plate already to be trying to steal stuff off of mine." Kuro snickered, but then he added something else. "Stay strong kid, and don't ever leave anyone behind." After that, he just turned away and left.

Megumin walked out of the room with the camber pot and slammed the door behind her before taking big gulps of air. "I will never eat or drink anything ever again. I don't want to have to go back in there." She solemnly swore.

Shirou couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on, we need to get back to the others."

* * *

Shirou and Megumin were the last ones to arrive back at headquarters, and by the looks of it, people had already been exchanging notes. Though voices quieted a bit as they watched Shirou walking towards them.

"Good, you're back. I was starting to worry you had gotten into trouble." Rin said as she created a gap in the group for Shirou and Megumin to fill.

"I can take care of myself." Shirou said, feeling a little indignant.

"That's exactly what I was afraid of. That someone saw you as just another rookie and that you did to them what you almost did to the commander." Rin said… and she had a point. "What have you managed to find out?"

"We met a veteran. He gave us the run down of joining a guild and gave us a map of the nearby hunting grounds and places to avoid." Shirou reported, holding up the large sheet of paper. "He also showed us to a tavern that is regularly visited by volunteer soldiers, being a place where they exchange information with each other, a place called Sherry's."

Rin took the map from him and started to look it over. "Already heard about the Guilds and Sherry's, though the map will be useful. Good work." She said before handing the map back to him. She still didn't have any pockets. "Since you two have already heard about the different Guilds, we can return to the subject of which guilds everyone should join."

"In order to keep the option of dividing the group up into smaller parties later available, we need to make sure that we allocate enough people to each role to make such a division possible without sacrificing our current setup. Let's start with the basics, each group will need a healer and a scout. Since Priests have the only type of healing magic available to us, we will need two Priests. As for scouts, the possible classes that can fill this role are Hunter and Thief. For the sake of diversity, I think our original group should have one of each. Everyone else should pick an attacking class, either Warrior, Paladin or Mage." Rin said, looking over the group. "Now, I'm all for gender equality, but if we are being realistic, some of these duties are going to require an amount of physical strength that us smaller girls can't handle. This unfortunately means that people who are taller are going to need to step up to fill these roles, and the rest of us will have to do what we can."

"Makes sense." One of the boys said, his name was… Richard? Shirou wasn't positive about it, but he thought he had heard the name before. He wasn't all that tall, being an inch or two shorter than Shirou was, putting him at about five foot nine. His hair was black and matted to the point where it almost covered his blue eyes. "So, which jobs are we talking about?"

"Beyond the obvious jobs like Warrior and Paladin taking up more physical strength than Priests and Mages, between Thief and Hunter, the Hunter class takes more physical strength in order to draw back their bows. So, it would be better if one of you boys took the Hunter role while a girl filled the thief role." Rin said, earning nods of agreement. "With one of you boys already filling the role of Hunter, the other four are going to have to split yourselves between Warrior and Paladin classes. Sara has already volunteered to be a Paladin. It would probably be for the best to have three Warriors and two Paladins. Does everyone agree?"

There were nods all around. Shirou included. It made sense for them to tend slightly more towards the type of fighter that was more offensive, since hit and run tactics rarely favored those who didn't take the initiative.

"Good, then Shirou will be our second Paladin." Rin said giving a sharp nod.

"I am?" Shirou couldn't help but gawk at her.

"Of course, you are. Between Warriors and Paladins, Paladins are more focused on using one hand swords like you did earlier this morning." Rin explained, one hand gesturing at empty space next to her as he spoke. "Why, what guild were you planning on joining?"

"Well, since I already know how to wield a sword, I figured it would be more useful to learn other skills. So, I thought I might join the Hunter's Guild and…" Shirou started, but Rin cut him off.

"Rejected." She said sharply before he could finish. "While you are indeed already skilled at using a one-handed sword, you won't get any better at doing it unless you join a guild that specializes in it. It is more valuable for the group for you to become as good as possible in a single field rather than trying to learn more trades. Besides, the Hunters guild may require some physical strength, but not nearly as much as the Warrior or Paladin's. You are probably the strongest member of our group, so it wouldn't make sense for you to fill the Hunter role."

Shirou grimaced a little. He couldn't argue with her logic, save for that she didn't know that he already knew everything that the Paladin's or Warrior's Guilds could teach him, and he didn't want to share that information. Not in front of so many people.

In the end, Shirou just nodded then watched as the other four boys got into an argument as to who should be in the Hunter's Guild. Having had it pointed out that it was the one that required the least strength, none of them wanted to be the one to end up in it and look like the weakest boy.

It ended with an arm-wrestling competitive, and the loser, a boy named Itsuki, became saddled with being the Hunter. The skinhead kid was the shortest of the boys, being around five foot six. After losing he gave a bit of a tantrum, though ultimately seemed to accept the result.

The final divisions of labor ended up with three Warriors, two Paladins, two Priests, three Mages, a Thief and a Hunter. Rin then divided the money she had gotten from selling the daggers among them, giving each of them three silver and twenty-five copper a piece. She had stored the remaining few silver coins away to be used as a rainy day fund in the most literal sense, since they couldn't work on rainy days.

She gave them all clear instructions not to spend the money on things like spare clothes or shaving razors, and that it all of it should go towards buying additional skills and preparing themselves for that first fight. After they survived that and had a better understanding of what they were in for, they could judge better on what they needed and could maybe think about other necessities beyond just surviving. The groups reviewed the directions on how to get to the different guild halls and they went separate ways.

"I… I suppose we will be joining the same guild, huh." Sara said nervously as they walked along.

"I suppose so." Shirou said back.

There was an awkward silence between them as they walked towards the hill near the back of the city. Shirou wasn't a great conversationalist. He couldn't even think of a topic to talk about. So he didn't even try. He just let his eyes wonder.

That is, until they spotted Itsuki walking in a very different direction than he was supposed to be. Rather than going towards the outskirt of the city, where the Hunter's Guild was, he seemed to be heading towards the slums. And standing right there next to him as a tall pale man with black armor and a two-hand sword strapped to his waist.

A Dread Knight.

The sore loser was going to go behind everyone's backs and join the Dread Knights instead of the Hunter's Guild.

Shirou groaned, but then he realized that this was perfect. Now he had a good excuse to have had joined the Hunter's Guild instead, since they would still be best served by having a second scout. Shirou wished Sara good luck and headed straight for the Hunter's Guild.

He was going to get an earful about this later from Rin, but he honestly didn't care. He had the suspicion he was going to be yelled at by her a lot anyways. Which was strange because other than with Bri and Shirou himself, Rin had seemed to have infinite patience with people.

Maybe she just really didn't like him.

* * *

 **No, in canon Kuro hasn't been shown to have any kind of tragic backstory. At least, not to my knowledge. I'm just making that part up.**

 **What actually is canon is that more Dread Knights live to retirement than other professions, even though there are less of them. Though I don't think they ever openly say that it is because they are back stabbing assholes. (Not all of them, just the ones that live.)**

* * *

 **I have finally figured it out. If you want to get the good stories to update, you just have to write something of the same category that is good enough to threaten to surpass them in popularity.**

 **Quick, everyone, go and write actually good stories so that the better ones will start updating again.**


	5. Chapter 5

"You think it's done yet?" Itsukushima idly wondered as they listened to the soft crackle of the fat from the meat skewers they had around their campfire.

"The skewers are done, but I think we should let the soup soak in the broth for a little longer. Shirou replied, checking on their meal.

Usually a Hunter Trainee would be taken outside the city walls on their final two days of lessons, after five long days of training with the bow and machete. During this time, they would be shown how to track animals, identify edible plant life and natural bug repellents, as well as set up temporary camping sites. However, after a thirty-minute demonstration of Shirou's skills with a bow and melee weapon on the first day, Itsukushima had simply shrugged his shoulders and suggested a more extended camping trip.

They each took one of the skewers of meat from the fire and moved to the edge of the included space they used as a camping site, placing the kebabs on the ground and giving a prayer to the Goddess Eldritch, thanking her for protecting them on the hunt. They always made offerings to Eldritch, though the type or quantity never really matter. The food was symbolic anyways, Eldritch didn't want to eat it, she just enjoyed the fact that she was in their thoughts.

Shirou actually kind of liked the Goddess Eldritch, who reminded him of an overly pleased house cat that demanded everyone's attention, though he would never dare tell her that. Eldritch often visited Hunters in their dreams, taking on the form of a giant white wolf. While she was a very kind individual, Shirou had been shocked the first time it happened, and embarrassed when she asked him about why there were so many weapons in his dreams. Even though he had only walked around the city for a single day, he had picked up just shy of a thousand of them to add to the narrow beach in his mind.

She was curious about it, but not so curious as to forget to demand that Shirou demonstrate his faithfulness to her in the form of belly rubs and scratching that one spot behind her ear. Itsukushima had been right when he had said that Eldritch was a lot more laid back and friendly than Lumiaris, the god worshipped by the Priests and Paladins. She had no strict prayers or oaths that must be followed. So long as you recognized yourself as being a part of her pack, that was good enough for her. All Hunters were her children, and like a doting mother, she loved them.

Returning to the campfire, the two started to eat their meals. "Shirou, someday you are going to make a woman very very happy." Itsukushima said as he bit into the meat. "I expect grandchildren, and lots of them."

Shirou had found himself enjoying cooking with the natural spices and grains that grew in the forest. He knew that the plant life was different then where he had come from, so his cooking wasn't perfect and still required much experimentation, but the simple act of cooking made him feel happy. He did however, wish that he had a real kitchen instead of just a simple campfire to work with.

"Please stop saying that Sensei. It wasn't funny six days ago. It isn't funny now." Shirou said as he took his own skewer and took a bite. He needed to find a way to grind up the spices better. It was too chunky in some spots, making some bites too different from the others. While he would say that the food was passable, it was only barely.

Checking on the soup again, Shirou looked around the campsite that they had been living in for the last seven days. There was a small sack with the loot they had gathered while hunting the mud goblins in the forest, the entire contents of which was probably only worth around one silver, as well as a few pelts from the animals they had hunted for their food, fifteen of them in total. There were a few smaller rabbits and wild mirumi furs, a type of animal that looks like a small flat faced tiger and was about the size of a bobcat, Itsukushima said that there were domesticated breeds of these animals that were similar to large house cats, but the wild ones tended to be rather aggressive. There were also two deer hides and one skin from an animal that they called a horned mane dog which had the misfortune of having tried to make the two Hunters it's dinner, not realizing where it lay on the food chain.

The deer hides Itsukushima had showed him how to properly sick and tan, a process that had taken a good two days, but had resulted in some good hard leather. The rest of them they had just skinned and cleaned. The skins were soft, so he would keep them to use as blankets and pillows. As for the leather, he and Itsukushima had tried to figure out how to make bracers and caps out of the stuff. They mostly failed, only producing a single usable bracer, but it had been fun to try and Shirou would only really need one for his archery anyways, in order to protect his arm from being lashed by the bow string.

It wasn't like they could have sold the stuff, since the Tanning Guild would have had their hides if they tried.

It just gave Shirou the slightest bit of an itch, knowing that he had used goblin brain matter in order to oil the skin during the tanning process. He wasn't sure why it had to be goblin brains, since they already had the deer's brains on hand, but Itsukushima had insisted they use goblin brains.

"Hard to believe it's been seven days." Shirou said, judging that the soup had been cooking for long enough and raising if from the fire to cool. He brought out the small tin bowls and scooped out some of the soup for each of them.

"I guess. It's been a long time since I last camped out for this long." Itsukushima admitted, taking the bowl from Shirou. "You might be the most talented student the guild has ever seen. I just wish I could actually teach you something useful."

"You've taught me more than enough. The entire reason I decided on the Hunter's Guild was because I didn't think I could learn anymore about weapon combat. It was tracking and survival I needed." Shirou said. Off in the distance, the sunset behind the trees.

"It's officially been seven days. Congratulations on your graduation. You're an official Hunter now." Itsukushima said. "I know there isn't much I can teach you, but don't be a stranger. If you ever want to drop by the Guild Hall for a visit, I'd be happy to have you."

"I'll be sure to." Shirou said smiling a bit to himself, letting himself feel the last glows of happiness. Tomorrow, he would have to face the music for having joined the Hunter's Guild. Rin would almost definitely chew his ass off.

Oh well, it was worth it.

* * *

Rin stood outside of the barracks in the part of the city which would normally be called the slums. They had all agreed to meet there after their training, giving them a chance to drop off any extra baggage they might have before they when on their first 'mission', for lack of a better term. Not that many of them would have extra items. Rin sure didn't. All she had were the clothes on her back, her staff and the clothes she had first shown up with at the tower as spares.

She was dressed in the worn and patched together second-hand dress that was given to her upon completing her training with the Mage's Guild. The black short dress was a little loose around the chest, making her feel a little bit self-conscious, but hopefully no one would notice. She wouldn't spend the money needed to replace or resize it, not until she was sure that she had already gotten everything she needed to insure her own and the rest of the groups survival. Necessity had to come before comfort.

She didn't wear the witch's hat. While it might have been nice to shield your eyes from the sun, it provided zero strategic value, and would limit her field of vision. Plus, while it looked cute on Megumin, there was an age limit to its cuteness, and Rin felt she had passed that line.

Rin had been more than just successful in her Mage Training. She had completed the normal seven-day hazing experience in three days without breaking a sweat and had spent the rest of the time learning as many low rank spells as she could afford. She had managed to learn five different low-level spells in those four days, and would have learned more and more powerful spells, if money hadn't been a concern.

The mentor she had been assigned to, the Wizard Sarai, said that she had been more than just talented and that she was a rare genius when it came to magic. This was partly due to her ability to use any kind of magic regardless of element.

While most mages only had a strong connection to one or two elements, limiting what spells they could learn, Rin had been able to easily learn all of the elements. Not only that, but she had an extraordinary amount of endurance and was able to cast far more spells before depleting her magic supply than any other trainee they had ever seen.

Megumin had also apparently done well while she had been practicing and had found time to learn a second spell before they left the Guild. She had seemed extremely excited about it, but had refused to tell Rin what it was, saying she wanted it to be a surprise. Normally Rin wouldn't have let it slide, but seeing the little girl skipping around in her witch's hat with a cape fluttering behind her, she decided to just let the child have her have her fun.

Yukari, the third girl to join the Mage's Guild, hadn't found the time for extra training but had voiced that she would be sure to return to learn more magic as soon as she found the time.

This situation was an unforeseen consequence to having distributed that money in the beginning, in that those talented enough to have pressed through their training quickly or bought equipment that would help them, and who would be the most likely to leave the others behind, would also be the ones who would be the most hurting for money at the moment. Meaning the ones who would be pressured to break off from the group if they couldn't bring in enough money to support a large group.

Rin cursed the world for its unforeseen consequences. The money that was supposed to have been to help the group as a whole survive was now going to be a sticking point with them.

Well, if people did try to break off, then it couldn't be helped. She would just have to stay behind in order to take care of the others… which would mean she herself wouldn't have the money and resources needed to start trying to look into the magic that brought them into this world…

DAMMIT! Why did it always have to come back to the money!? It wasn't just the root of all evil, it was also the root of all the pain in her ass!

"Rin, is that you?" Another girl said, dragging Rin out of her thoughts. The girl had walked straight up in front of Rin, but she hadn't recognized her until she had spoken.

"Sara?" Rin replied, more than a little surprised. More than just a change from the baggy clothes she had been in into the hard leather armor given to Paladin Recruits, Sara's hair had been cut down into a bowl cut and her glasses were missing. She actually looked a lot prettier without her thick glasses. "I hardly recognized you."

"Y…yes. I know." Sara said, flushing with embarrassment. "The Master of Arms who was in charge of my training said that longer hair can get you into trouble and made me cut it short, and I broke my glasses during training."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Rin said politely. "Other than that, did the training go well?"

Sara's bottom lip trembled before she let out a small squeaking reply. "No…"

"Sara, what's the matter." Rin asked as the girl started to tear up.

"I… I'm sorry. I just… The Master of Arms was always yelling at me. He was constantly saying that… that I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn." Sara said, trying to wipe away her tears. "I couldn't help it. I'm far-sighted, so after I broke my glasses, it just became so hard to see what was happening right in front of me, so I couldn't tell where I was supposed to swing my sword."

Rin's heart sank. Sara was far-sighted. Meaning that now they had a Paladin who was basically blind once the enemies got too close to her. As she was now, she would be almost completely dead weight to the party, and if the others found out about it, it could cause even more problems.

They would need to get Sara some new glasses… which would take money. Probably a lot of it. Even the more wealthy buildings in the city didn't have glass windows, so glass was probably expensive, and without ways of judging the exact shape to make the lens to fix her sight, they would probably have to go through multiple trials to find something that worked.

OH GOD! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SO EXPENSIVE TO BE A GOOD PERSON!

Even though she was screaming on the inside, Rin maintained her calm outward demeanor as she offered Sara her support.

"Hey, its alright." Rin said patting Sara on the small of her back. "We'll just have to find a way to get you some new glasses. Until then, we figure out a way to work around this. How good are you with your shield?"

"I'm… I'm okay with it." Sara admitted through her sniffles.

"Alright then, we'll keep you towards the rearguard and you can help shield the backline in case anyone gets through the vanguard." Rin said as she continued to pat the girl's back.

"Thank you, Rin. You're a good friend." Sara said. Her words almost made Rin pause.

Friend. For some reason it felt weird to be called that. Almost as though Rin wasn't used to having friends. Why would that be? She had a perfectly charming personality and was good at pleasing people. So why would she have found it hard to make friends in her previous life?

"Wow, looks like we weren't the only ones who had a hard time of it during training." Yui said as she joined the group, followed by the three boys who had joined the Warrior's Guild. Yui had been the despair girl who had grabbed onto Shirou's arm back during that first morning. She had joined the Priests guild, along with another girl, Niko.

After looking around again, Rin spotted Niko drifting around behind the three boys. She was shorter and flatter than even Rin, with short cropped bright green hair and slightly darker skin. Both her and Yui were dressed in the white and blue priest robs that were given out to trainees. Which surprisingly good shape compared to the stuff that the others were wearing. There were stitches in places were the clothes had been mended, but they lacked the large patches the others had.

"Were we the last one's to arrive?" Riku asked, as the guy walked forward. Tall as ever, standing at around six foot two. His chainmail had gasp in places were the previous owner was no doubt stabbed but was still probably better protection that what most of the rest of them were wearing. While the other two wore helmets, he didn't.

Rin guessed this was because helmets didn't actually come free with entry, and while the others had bought the helmets for the protection against the single deadly hit to the head, Riku had more than likely managed to complete his training fast enough to be able to have enough time for something extra and had thus not had the money for a helmet.

"No, Shirou and Itsuki haven't showed up yet." Rin said with a slight shake of the head. Aoi, the girl who joined the Thief's Guild, was inside the barracks already and looking around. "Speaking of which, Sara, have you seen Shirou? Wasn't he supposed to have joined the Paladin's Guild with you."

"Ah… Actually… the thing is." Sara started to stammer.

Before she could get her words out, Itsuki arrived on the scene. "Hope you all haven't been waiting on me too long." The smug boy said as he walked towards them, a two-hand sword strapped to his hip and a skull necklace around his neck.

The group just stared at him for a few seconds before someone spoke. "Itsuki, what's with that sword, and where's your bow?" Touma said as he looked the boy up and down.

"Well, I figured that the Hunter's guild wouldn't be a very good use for my talents, so instead I joined the Dread Knight's Guild." Itsuki said, pointing towards the skull necklace.

"You… idiot!" Riku shouted at him. "You were supposed to have become a Hunter so that we could have another scout on our team! What were you thinking!?" The larger boy would have stepped forward to try to throttle the kid, but Rin lifted an arm to stop him. She might not have been big enough to stop him, but he hadn't really needed all the much persuading to stop.

Rin only gave a sigh of disappointment. Honestly, compared to Sara's near blindness, this was hardly more than a hiccup on the road to success. While the idiot would be stuck as a Dread Knight, they could still just get one of the other boys to change from Warrior to Hunter after they got enough money… money… money… *groan*

"But I am a scout. Dread Knights are capable of summoning demons who can tell us when enemies are nearby." Itsuki said smugly.

"Huh, is that true?" Yui asked, looking surprised.

"Partially." Rin admitted. "Dread Knights can only summon their demons at night, due to the influence of the Light God weakening them during the day. They can overcome this weakness by collecting enough vises, but it would take hundreds of them before he could summon a demon during the middle of the day, which is when we will be working." Rin said with a sigh. "Plus, the key word he said when describing the demon's ability to alert him is the word 'can'. The demon itself gets to decide whether or not to provide assistance. And since the demon serves a god of death more than the Dread Knight, it would more than likely just lead us straight into the enemies rather than away from danger, so I wouldn't call it a scout."

"Itsuki, you idiot." Yui said, giving her own sigh, ticking the boy off.

"Doesn't matter. A Dread Knight is a perfectly capable frontline fighter, so he will still be able to help the party in fights. We will just have to do with only one scout for now." Rin said with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Not quite." They all turned around to see Shirou standing there, four small sack bags thrown over one shoulder and a bow and quiver over the other. At his waist was both the sword he had gotten from Bri as well as an old machete. He was dressed in a brown tunic with dark pants and on his right arm was a leather bracer. He stood there, looking at them, or at Rin, with a nerves smile. "I spotted Itsuki when he was going to the Dread Knight's Guild, so I switched to the Hunters Guild so that we would still have a hunter in our group."

Rin blinked at him, her jaw falling open. Her arms started to shake slightly. "You… you… MORON!" She shouted at him, surprising the rest of the group. "Out of all the people, why did it have to be you!?"

"H…hey. What's the problem, we needed a Hunter and now we have one, right? We still got plenty of front line fighters left." Touma said, giving Shirou a nerves glance.

Actually, several of them were giving Shirou sidelong looks. They still remembered how Shirou had nearly killed commander faggot, and while that had made them all desperate to be on Shirou's team, it had also made them rather scared of him. He had show an unusual willingness to kill people.

Rin could logically agree that she should have been more frightened about the kinds of things that Shirou could do to her with that sword, but she just wasn't. Honestly, she couldn't find it in her to be afraid of him. Whenever she looked at him she could only feel either proud of herself or a sense of tired annoyance.

Rin took a deep breath, trying to regain herself before she lost face before continuing. "It would have been a good thing if it had been anyone else. But it was extremely important that Shirou become a Paladin." Rin said with a sigh. "While Warriors are good at handling enemies with number, Paladin's excel at one on one combat with more powerful enemies. With their defensive skills and blessings, they can better avoid and absorb attacks from stronger enemies much better than Warriors, and they possess a skill that greatly increases the cutting power of their weapons, letting them cut through tougher enemies. They are almost mandatory if you want to reliably handle large armored enemies. And if someone as skilled as Shirou became a Paladin then our group would be well set up to handle elite monsters."

"Well… he could still change Guilds later, right? It isn't like we are going to be fighting elite enemies right away." Riku suggested.

"No, he can't." Yui said, shaking her head. "The Priest and Paladin Guilds don't accept anyone who has had a God other than Lumiaris. Since the Hunters all worship the White Goddess, that means they can't join."

"Shirou, you idiot." Rin groaned weakly. "I wanted a Saber and ended up with an Archer instead."

Suddenly, both her and Shirou froze. Something about what she had said felt familiar though she couldn't place it. Just like before, she found the words and thoughts slipping away from her. Disappearing like mist even as she tried to grab at the.

Oh well, it wasn't like they were really anything impor…

NO! She wouldn't just give it up. They meant something. But what was it. Come on Rin, think. Archer and… Archer and…

She had already forgotten one of the words, and she could feel the other one slipping through her fingers. She tried to cling to it and not let it go.

Archer. Archer. Archer.

"Rin, are you alright?" Sara said, bringing Rin back to reality.

"Yes I'm fine." Rin said, trying to keep herself looking calm. "Just dealing with a minor headache here." She added, throwing Shirou a look before sighing. "There isn't anything we can do about it now. I just hope that you are good with that bow, Archer." She said, putting a bit of force behind the final word.

Shirou flinched. "Archer?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"If you want to be a Hunter so bad, then that will be your new nickname. Archer. Got a problem with it?" Rin asked, giving a not so innocent smile. Archer. It would be her way of making sure she never forgot. Archer. Every time she looked at Shirou and every time she spoke to him, it would remind her of what she was trying to do. Archer.

She would not forget.

Shirou frowned. It was more of a frown to show that he was thinking rather than a frown at Rin herself. "Actually, being called that pisses me off a little for some reason."

"Well Archer, you should have thought of that before you became a Hunter, because how you're stuck with it." Rin said smugly.

"You really are a witch." Shirou replied with a short sigh.

Rin's mouth twitched into a smile, though she didn't really understand why. "Alright, we've spent enough time just talking here. There are four people per room here. So I've already reserved three rooms."

"Huh, wait, doesn't that mean that one of us guys gets to stay in a room with three girls?" Itsuki said, his face twisting into a grin.

"What, no way!" Yui shouted indignantly. "Girls and guys can't room together!"

"If we make enough money today to make us feel comfortable about our situation, then we will rent another room tonight. Otherwise we won't waste the money. Besides, it isn't like where are going to be sleeping in the same bed, or naked or something. So it isn't a big deal." Rin said with a shrug. "If you don't want to sleep in a room with a guy in it, that's fine. One of the rooms will be all girls anyways."

"It really isn't very appropriate, but I suppose it is necessity. We need to focus on conserving our resources as much as possible." Shirou said, scratching his chin.

Rin looked over the boys before her eyes settled on Shirou. "Well Archer, it looks like you are going to be sleeping with the girls tonight."

Shirou blinked in surprise. "Why me?" He said, more puzzled than offended.

"Because you are the only one who isn't visibly horny at the idea." She said, pointing towards the other four boys who were squirming around a bit with flushes on their faces.

"Ah, I see." Shirou said with a sigh, before any of the other boys could argue the point. "I'll just go put my stuff away then." He said, starting to walk towards the barracks before stopping. "By the way, one of these sacks is full of leftover pemmican from my hunting exercises, if anyone's hungry."

Niko, who had been in a dazed state throughout everything that had been said suddenly shot up. "Food!" She shouted, quickly taking the indicated bag away from Shirou and starting to eat the dried meat which was covered in some sort of dried berry paste that stuck to the fat of the meat.

It actually did smell pretty good.

The day was not going well, and Rin had no reason to believe it would get any better.

She would just have to do her best to make sure everyone survived.

* * *

 **For those of you who have been asking, I'm going to get an editor eventually. I'm just waiting until after I start my next medication trial.**

 **Until then I want to pump out as much as I can before my interest in the world comes crashing down again.**


	6. Chapter 6

The paves of the forest were already becoming familiar to Shirou, and he took the lead, first showing the group one of the hidey-holes marked on the map by Kuro, which could be used to store there food goods and other supplies so that they could go unencumbered during the first, before starting off to do the normal rounds, checking the watering holes for activity, as well as some high vantage points which could overlook a less dense section of the woods.

He could tell that Rin was still mad at him. He could practically feel the glare on the back of his neck. He would have to explain himself sooner or later, but he didn't know how to approach the subject. He couldn't just ask her to speak to him in private. Not while there were so many people with their eyes on him. They might get the wrong impression.

It had been nice to see Megumin again. She cheerfully talked his ear off about all the things that she wasn't allowed to talk about from during her Mage's Guild training. If a politician was someone who could talk a lot without actually saying anything, then she had earned her position as the emperor of all the known world just in that one morning. She had however told Shirou about one of the other Mage's she had met while at the guild. A cheerful woman who she called 'Mimori-nee-chan'.

Apparently Mimori had offered Megumin a spot in her veteran's party, but Megumin had turned her down because Rin had said not to accept party invites from strangers. While Mimori had been disappointed, she had still helped Megumin learn the super spell that she was always boasting about but had yet to tell anyone what it actually was.

Some of the other party members were visibly annoyed with Megumin but didn't say anything. Shirou didn't really mind so much. He found her chatter endearing in some ways. It didn't really distract him from his hunt. Once he had hypnotized himself with the [Tracking] skill, it would have been difficult for anything to really distract him. Just as he had been taught, his eyes registered the marks on every spot of dirt and every snapped twig.

It was amazing the things you could learn from a broken twig. The weight of what broke the twig would be guessed by the shape of the break, the speed and direction the thing was going from where it fell, the time elapsed by how fresh the wood inside was.

While normally a brand new trainee wouldn't have had more than a day of instruction in this skill and would find it difficult to maintain, Shirou had done nothing but practice it for days. He found more than a dozen trails that could have been followed in that single morning. However, nearly all of them were just animals; deer, wolves, a bear, and what was probably an entire swarm of pat-rats. And while some of them were good eats, none of them were what the party was looking for.

However, he still chose to point them out to Rin, hoping that they would make her see the value of having him as a Hunter. She continued to try to act determinedly unconvinced, though still asked for more details about the function and limits of his abilities. Megumin had thought it was pretty cool.

Eventually though, just as noon had passed, one of the watering holes bore fruit in the form of small group of four goblins. They were all around the small stream with food cooking in an iron pot over a fire. Two whole deer carcasses were nearby, stripped to the bone. Rusted spears and hatches were all copied onto Shirou's ever growing stockpile of weapons, though these goblins could hardly have been said to possess any skill with mimicking.

"Finally found some. I was starting to wonder if they had all ran off scared." Itsuki whispered with a smile as the Dread Knight fingered his blade. The rest were also preparing themselves for their first actually bit of combat. They were all visibly nerves but doing their best to hid it.

"Something isn't right here." Shirou said as he looked over the four goblins.

"Why, what do you see?" Rin asked him, causing the others to halt in their preparations to charge.

"According to my sensei, mud goblins are the lowest tier in goblin society. They aren't allowed any possessions beyond those they wear as a talisman around their necks and a weapon to defend themselves with as they scavenge for food. But these goblins all have cloth pouches, meaning they are at least lesser goblins, still low on the food chain, but not so low as to be forced to scavenge for food this close to humans. They shouldn't be here." Shirou explained.

"So, these ones are wealthy you say? Sounds like we got lucky." Richard said. "Even if they are higher rank, they are still just goblins, right? They are still the weakest of all the monsters and we still outnumber them three to one."

"So long as it is just the four of them." Rin said, looking more closely at the group of goblins. "I don't know how much goblins eat for lunch, but that seems like an awful lot of meat they are cooking."

"It could be that they are going to be staying here a while and are making extra food, or it could be that they are part of a larger group, in which case it is safe to assume that they are the bottom feeders of that particular group." Shirou said.

"Alright, we should hold off the attack to scout the area. If Archer's right, then they won't be moving anywhere any time soon." Rin said calmly. "Shirou, Sara and Megumin will circle them counter-clockwise, while I will go clockwise around them with Aoi, Richard and Touma. Itsuki and Riku will remain here with Yukari, Yui and Niko and keep an eye on them. If it looks like they have spotted any of us, launch an attack and we will strike at them from all sides. Even both groups reach the stream without any signs of enemy reinforcements, then we will attack them from all sides anyways. Understood?"

"Come on. I say we just go for it. If we take too much time, then this will be the only group we see all day." Itsuki said stubbornly.

"We shouldn't underestimate them or overestimate ourselves. We've never done this before. Caution is the best approach. Humanity and the goblins had been at war for hundreds of years. Its safe to assume that while none of us… besides Archer perhaps, has ever killed anything, these goblins won't hesitate for a second before going for our throats." Rin said calmly, not letting the boy work her up. "One mistake out here and we could all die. I'd rather not make that mistake a stupid one where we saw that there was something wrong but then charged forward anyways."

"Hmph, sounds like the excuses of a cowardly girl if you ask me." Itsuki said, perhaps forgetting that more than half the team were girls.

"If group wishes to take the risk right now and attack before scouting, then I am more than willing to change plans to a quick ambush. So, let's put it to a vote." Rin said simply, looking around at the others. When comparing Itsuki and Rin, it was hard to image anyone trying to follow the former. This entire thing was just a demonstration to put Itsuki down without making Rin look like a tyrant. She asked the party to decide and everyone was behind her because she spoke sense. The only exception being Itsuki himself who was left seething and looking at the other boys with betrayed eyes. Only Touma gave him an apologetic shrug.

"Than its decided. If anything happens have your mage cast [Mystic Missile] to alert everyone. Aoi, we'll follow your lead." Rin said following the Thief girl into the bushes on their life, the two Warriors right behind her.

Shirou himself moved to the right, telling Megumin and Sara to walk in the path directly behind him and to make as little noise as possible. He moved quickly, keeping his eyes and ears open in case of more goblins lying in wait, but saw nothing but the woods around him and heard nothing but the birds, the goblins that were already in the clearing, and the sounds of Sara and she ungracefully tried to sneak about.

As he snuck along, Shirou couldn't help but wonder what it was he should do in this upcoming fight. He could have easily shot down all four goblins before they even had time to sound any kind of alarm, if they had one. Even if they did have reinforcements, he had twelve arrows, each one might as well be counted as a kill, and even once he was done with them, he would still have his blades.

But the purpose of this hunt was for his less experienced party members to get their feet wet. For them to become more accustomed to the idea and feel of killing. None of which would happen if Shirou just slaughtered everything for them. At the same time, he didn't want them to get themselves killed.

He would have to temper his shots. Injure, but not kill. Leaving the goblins too injured to launch their own lethal attacks, but still strong enough to put up a fight. While it would be bad if his party was wounded, they had Priests for that. He just had to make sure that none of the strikes were deadly.

There were no signs of recent movement through the brush surrounding the stream. Which wasn't all that surprising. The vegetation was thick, so the goblins probably wouldn't have tried to push through it. They would have just walked through the open area closer to the stream, where the goblins were currently waiting for them. He won't know the exact situation until he reached the edge of the clearing.

They had gone half way down the slope towards the stream when Sara got her foot caught on a root, causing her to trip and fall. Her sword rattled in its scabbard and she gain an involuntary cry of alarm. Her arms cartwheeled as she tried to catch herself, slapping bushes as she went down.

Shirou froze and motioned for Megumin to crouch down. If the goblins had heard and were going to come closer than…

"Charge!" Itsuki shouted out as both he and Riku ran down the hill they had started in, straight down towards the goblins, each of them shouting like idiots. Their cover was blow and it was time to fight.

Shirou stood up, pulling is bow off his back and fitting an arrow in one single motion. The goblins were startled but quickly started to form on in order to move in on the two attackers. They had yet to notice that they were completely outnumber, else they would have probably retreated to join up with their reinforcements. Unless they truly were alone. This gave time for Richard and Touma to circle behind them and cut off their retreat.

Two of the goblins, the ones with hatches in hand were a little faster than those with spears, so they were the first to reach Itsuki and Riku.

Shirou let arrows fly, one after another, hitting both goblins in the back, right underneath the shoulder bone of their main arms. They gave shrill screams of pain but didn't let go of their weapons. Still, they hardly had enough strength to try to block any incoming attacks and were left to dodge the strikes rather than tanking them. Goblins were nasty creatures, as they didn't seem to care if they had suffered wounds, even of the mortal variety. They just kept moving. Whether that meant fighting or running away.

The two spear users were about to be in position to assist their brethren when a bolt of purple light came down from the hill behind the two human fighters. Yukari had finished her [Magic Missile] chant and had fired it at the two spear users. But either she hadn't been able to make up her mind as to the target or her accuracy could use some work, as the bolt just struck the ground between the two, kicking up dust. The only affect it had on them was that they stopped charging in surprise.

Something that did have a greater effect was when ice began to incapsulate one of the spear wielder's legs, quickly growing upwards until it extended from the ground all the way up to its hip, leaving the goblin immobilized.

Itsuki and Riku managed to cut down the two injured goblins they had been fighting, though they hesitated afterwards, both breathing hard as their lungs were filled with the stink of blood for the first time.

With two of his companion's dead and the final one stuck in ice, the last of the goblins decided that now would be a good time to run. Too bad for him that Richard and Touma were standing there with their massive swords raised and serious expressions on their faces, Aoi and Rin a few feet behind them.

Recovering from their shock, Itsuki went to finish off the immobilized goblin while Riku joined the other two Warriors in encircling the last of the goblins. The goblin kept spinning around, trying to make sure that all of them kept their distance with his spear, but it was only a matter of time.

It looked as if it was going to be a total victory, and Shirou began to lower his bow. Then he noticed a strange smell. Something smelled like it was burning.

"Delm hel en balk zel arve…" Megumin chanted, holding her staff out in front of her as a dark crimson red magic circle began to appear. Shirou could only blink, wondering why he suddenly felt the urge to run when the girl finished casting her spell. "[Blast]!"

What happened next was something hard to describe. The goblin that had been trying to preserve its life as best it could, suddenly exploded. A ball of fire, over six feet in diameter, appeared out of nowhere, blowing the goblin to piece and sending the bits flying through the air. The dirt underneath where the goblin had stood was thrown up from the power of the [Blast], joining the pieces of goblin in raining down from the sky. A sound like thunder ripped past everyone. And then finally, as their ear drums started to recover, they all heard human screams of bloody murder.

Touma had been caught by the edge of the attack.

* * *

"Oh hell!" Rin shouted raising her free hand and starting a cast. "Jeeru mea gram fel kanon, [Freezing Blood]!" She shouted, using the same spell she had used to entrap the goblin to put out the flames and cool the now mangled chainmail.

The chainmail and cloth had been burned away, leaving a rather gruesome looking sight.

Luckily, Touma had only been going in for a taunt, and not plunging his blade into the goblin when the explosion happened. While his arm and face were horribly burned, the boy was still very much alive, and in horrible pain.

"Yui, Niko, get down here, now!" Rin shouted up the hill for the Priests, though she hadn't needed to. They were already on their way down to perform their jobs. They paled and shivered as they got close, but after a quick prodding by Rin, they got to work healing the boy's wound.

Their cure spell was surprisingly powerful for the first level of healing magic. After seven casts, there wasn't even a scar to show that Touma had nearly been blown to bits. The cure spell did have drawbacks though. It couldn't be cast at a range and wouldn't counteract the pain that the boy was even now feeling, and like all of the Priests' healing magic, it wouldn't replace organs.

Even as they were healing him, Touma went into shock and lost consciousness. At least he stopped screaming.

"What in the hell was that!? Are we still under attack!?" Riku said, looking all around. He looked like he was going to piss himself. "Where is the enemy!?"

"There is no enemy. It was accidental friendly fire." Shirou said as he joined the group. He was half carrying a rather unstable Megumin with him.

"I'm sorry. I was so excided to finally cast my spell on real bad guys. I didn't think anyone would get hurt." The child said weakly. Rin recognized the symptoms of having used too much magic.

"What, are you telling me that you did that!?" Itsuki shouted, pointing at the hole in the ground.

Rin's mind finally caught up with what had just happened. "It's Arve type fire magic, the [Blast] spell." Rin said in half shock. She had read a bit about the spell and had even played with the idea of learning it for herself, but she hadn't expected that the mystery magic that Megumin had been talking about with be that. What moron thought it would be a good idea to teach a little girl such a dangerous spell?

"Arve type? What's that?" Yukari asked, as she looked at the damage her fellow Mage had done with wide eyes.

Rin instinctively went into lecture mode at having been asked the question. "Fire magic can be divided into two types. The first type is called Avel, which creates and sustains fire for extended periods of time. The other type is called Arve, which releases all the magic energy used to cast the spell in a single powerful burst." Rin said, reciting something she had read while at the Mage's Guild. "It could best be explained by looking at two upper tier elementary level fire spells; [Fire Wall] and [Fire Pillar]. [Fire Wall] is an Avel type fire spell that creates a ten-foot-tall wall of fire and can sustain that wall for up to ten minutes if nothing happens to the caster. That said, the wall of fire is more of a deterrent than an actually wall to be depended on, since if you run through the fire fast enough you could get through with only minor burns, or without any burns at all."

"[Fire Pillar] is the Arve equivalent of [Fire Wall]. It only lasts for about a second and is only around five feet tall and one foot across. But if you get caught in it… well, the goblin should give you a good idea of what would happen to you." Rin said, pointing to a bit of blackened flesh.

"Holy hell. A rookie mage could cast magic like that? Why am I even out here?" Richard said, going pale. "We could have been killed."

"I don't know how Megumin knew that spell, let alone was able to cast it. It was a higher intermediate level Arve spell. With her being as new to magic as she is, she shouldn't have the magical energy needed to cast it. I'm surprised she's even conscious right now." Rin said looking the girl up and down.

"I did pass out the first time I used it." Megumin admitted weakly.

"Wait, that was the intermediate level? What is the advanced level spell like?" Yui asked.

"[Explosion]. It's described in the books as a spell that could be used to take down groups of giants, small armies or even entire castles. It is similar to the [Blast] spell, only with a radius of two hundred feet. Supposedly, no one currently alive is able to use it due to the sheer cost of the spell. The closest they can get is by having three Wizards all casting together. Users of the Arve element are rare, and ones who have the kind of magic reserves needed to cast the highest tier of spells are even rarer." Rin explained.

"[Explosion]." Megumin said in wonder, her eyes seeming to sparkle at the prospect of it.

Rin saw that look in her eyes and was worried. It seemed as though Megumin had decided that her goal in life would be to learn the [Explosion] spell. Lord help them all if she ever did. Considering that magical energy tended to grow with one's vitality as well as practice, if Megumin could cast a [Blast] spell after just one week of training and when her body was still developing, she might just have enough magic to do it once she was fully grown. Rin thought that the [Blast] she had used looked a bit larger than what her books had described… as in almost twice the normal size.

Then a thought occurred to Rin. "The [Blast] spell should have cost too much for you to have learned. Didn't it cost ten silver?"

"Well… I kind of spent all of my money to get it." Megumin said weakly.

Rin took in a small breath. "By all of it, do you mean… all of it?" She asked the girl. Megumin only nodded in response. "Great. But that was still only five silver and thirty copper. Where did the rest of the money come from?"

"Mimori-nee-chan helped to pay for the rest." Megumin admitted weakly.

"…And why did she do this?"

"She… said that I would look cute using it."

"…We need to have a serious talk with this 'Mimori-nee-chan' of yours." Shirou said with a sigh. "I can cover for her living expenses. I've still got all of my money."

"Thank you, Onii-chan." Megumin said. It probably would have been a shout, but she was too tired for it.

"Well, this is good isn't it? We have a mage on our team with a really powerful spell." Sara said softly.

Rin shook her head a little. "Sort of. It would be amazing if we were in the normal army, but because we are with the volunteer forces, Arve type fire magic comes with some down sides."

"Like what?" Yukari asked, wondering what could possibly be bad about having such powerful magic.

"For starters, because of the cost of the spells, you can only use them a few times a day, so after one or two casts, you have to call it a day, regardless how much or little money you've made that day. Also, as ironic as it might sound, its sheer power is a disadvantage. Fat chance we are getting any loot out of that goblin she killed." Rin said with a shrug. "Then there are environmental effects that have to be taken into account. If she had used the spell closer to the brush instead of this dry clay clearing, then she could have set the entire forest on fire. And if you use it in a building or in a cave, you are likely to have it collapse on top of you."

"So it is a powerful spell, but one that is almost too powerful to ever be used." Sara summed up.

"Finally, there is a matter of the noise it cau…" Rin started but then stopped and her eyes widened. "Riku, Richard, pick up Touma now! We need to move!"

"W… what?" Richard said in surprise. "What do you mean? Why do we have to move him?"

"There isn't any time to explain we have to…!" Rin started to shout at him, but before she could finish, Shirou had jumped on her and started to pull her down. There was a thudding sound as an arrow landed squarely in the center of Shirou's arm which was currently covering her chest.

Before she had time to speak, Shirou was back on his feet, bow draw and firing an arrow. Almost four hundred feet away, something fell out of a tree and hit the ground hard.

"Onii-chan, are you alright!?" Megumin shouted, having been jarred into a more aware start by Shirou having dropped her in order to perform his diving tackle of Rin.

Yui started to move closer to Shirou in order to heal him, but he brushed her off. "It's only a flesh wound, conserve your stamina." He said, his voice strict enough to get her to stop in her tracks. The arrow hadn't gone deep into his bracer, just a quarter of an inch. He pulled it out and hardly any blood was on the tip. "This isn't over yet."

Rin saw what he meant as in the distance, and all around them, bushes began to move as things began to be drawn in. The final weakness of Arve type fire magic was the sound of the explosion, which could be heard for miles around, alerting all enemies.

The dinner bell had just been rung.

* * *

 **Sorry the update is late. Some people actually put out something I wanted to read, and I am a VERY slow reader. LOL.**


	7. Chapter 7

The moment the crossbow bolt had entered Shirou's peripheral vision, he had analyzed it, determined the exact path it would take, and began to fling himself in order to intercept the attack using his leather bracer, pumped up with [Steel Guard], in order to block it. If he had his sword out, then he could have deflected the attack midflight, but that was still in its sheath and would have taken a fraction of a second too long to draw.

The bolt had been fired from a heavy crossbow, and would have gone straight through Shirou's arm, if not for the reinforcements. Another reason for he to thank his lucky stars that he had stolen the [Steel Guard] technique and was such a natural with it. There was a strange sense of déjà vu as the metal tip of the bolt pieced his arm as he shielded the visibly surprised twin-tailed girl.

The ironic thing was, from what he could tell by the weapon's history, the goblin hadn't even been aiming for Rin. He had been aiming for Niko who had been standing a few feet next to her, but his shot was off. It also told him the exact position from which it was fired. Shirou might not have been able to see the goblin through the distance and the thick tree branches it was hiding it, but that wouldn't stop him, and unlike the goblin, he didn't miss.

Now they were moving through the forest as fast as they could with one party member in far too much pain to be walking as he still felt like his entire side was being burned off, and a second party member too exhausted to walk for herself.

Sara and Richard had to work together to support Touma's weight as they hobbled along, and Shirou had left Megumin in Aoi's hands. The rest of the formation used as they moved was to have the Priests on either side to block as best they could with there staves, while Rin supported them with magic, Aoi remaining in position near the center so that she could support either side when need be, Itsuki and Riku taking the rearguard, and Shirou in the vanguard, cutting upon a path and supporting the other sides with arrows whenever an attacker got too close.

They had purposely remained fairly close to the city in case of an emergency. It would have usually been about a ten-minute sprint. But weighed down was they were, it would be a half an hour of hell, with the little devils nipping at their heels. And based on the sound of there shrill war cries, there were a lot of them.

As they moved and saw more and more lesser goblins and even raider-class goblins rather than the mud goblin variety, Rin's mind slowly started to process what was going on. Everyone in town knew that a full moon meant new rookies and that rookies started off hunting in that forest after that first week of training. Was it too much of a stretch to believe that the goblins all knew the exact same thing? That they would decide to just nip the problem in the bud before it could even begin and set up a hunting party of their own? She should have seen it sooner, and now they were all in great danger.

Though it seemed that even this situation wasn't enough to convince Shirou to take things seriously. She had wondered before when during their first fight he had only shot two arrows. The two had been rapidly shot, both fired at moving targets and each had been a hit, which was fairly impressive, but for some reason she had figured that he had purposely missed performing a killing blow. And while he now each time he fired an arrow it was going right between the target's eyes, he wasn't taking the melee fight seriously. He had yet to draw the sword that the Commander had given him, using only the worn-down old machete instead, as if the goblins weren't good enough to warrant the scratches they would put on the higher quality blade.

Though even with this he was still slaughtering every goblin that chose to get in their way, usually with no more that three moves and without breaking stride.

It drove home the fact that the fight between him and Bri had been a fight between two Masters, only seeming relatively mundane due to lack of perspective to give it the proper scope. What was happening now was what it looked like when a Master decided to come down and show the Rookies how it's done. It was like a full-grown adult kicking around a bunch of children. Fitting, consider the average goblin was around three and half feet tall. Within five minutes of their scrambled run, Shirou had killed more than fifty goblins himself. Though with how much he had to move about in order to protect everyone without spending all of his arrows, the question of stamina came up. How long could Shirou realistically keep up this kind of thing?

They were almost half way back to the city walls and starting to get hopeful that they would reach some kind of invisible line after which the goblins would be unwilling to follow out of fear of provoking the entire human army, when they stumbled into a clearing and were greeted by a rather intimidating welcoming party.

Standing in the center of the clearing was a rather large goblin. Large by the standards of goblins that it. While most goblins ranged from three to four feet in height, this guy was closer to Rin's height, of five foot three inches, making him a giant among his kind. His skin was a black rather than the dark greens and dirt browns of the other goblins.

It was fully decked out in black iron platemail with odd objects welded all over the armor. Small shiny rocks, coins, and animal teeth. Things that by themselves might have seemed sort of pretty but had been grafted onto the armor without any sense of artistic understanding, in an almost random fashion, looking more stupid that regal. Finally, he was armed with a shield and a large black scimitar.

Surrounding him were two other goblins, each with bows trained on the Trainees, and a total of six armored Hobgoblins, a mammoth sized subspecies of goblins that were each just over six feet tall. Each of these were holding great swords of the same variety as the human Warriors used.

The black goblin stepped forward and started to spit out what seemed to the humans to be random nonsense words, but what must have been some kind of goblin speak. Was it monologue to a group of people that couldn't even understand it? That seemed kind of… weird.

But as it was speaking, Shirou himself spoke up, whispering to the group, or more particularly, to Rin. "Rin, I'll open up the way, protect the others while I take care of this." He said as he calmly started to walk forward with his hands at his sides. The black goblin didn't seem to care and just kept talking, but the archer's trained their arrows on Shirou as he separated himself from the group.

"Archer, what do you think you're…" Rin started, but before she could finish, Shirou started his attack.

Shirou whipped out his blow, notched an arrow and fired it straight for the black goblin before any of them knew what was going on. The goblin was surprised, but not to surprised to raise his shield to protect himself. Fat lot of good that did him.

The arrow slammed into the shield and blew straight through it, before sinking into the center of the goblin's chest and coming out the other side. Both the humans and goblins stared in shock at the hole in the goblin leader's chest as it slowly fell to the ground.

"Holy hell." Itsuki mumbled. "I really should have just been an Hunter."

The goblins screamed, and the two archers fired their arrows. Shirou slapped the first arrow out of the air with his bow before catching the other one. Catching it… as in with his bear hand! Notching the stolen arrow, he fired it back where it came from, before reaching up and drawing the last arrow out of his quiver, firing it straight for the remaining archer. Both bowmen dropped dead with arrows straight through their skulls, and as they did, Shirou discarded his bow and his empty quiver to draw his machete.

The Hobgoblin had taken a moment, looking between each other, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do now that their boss was dead, but a final consensus was made, and they rushed towards Shirou with swords drawn, letting loose a furious war cry.

Shirou was not impressed. Though he had a nagging feeling he had experienced such war cries before, just at a totally different level.

As they reached him, he rushed the Hobgoblin on the far right, diving in underneath its sword swing and slashing at its forward leg, cutting around the metal plates that guarded the monster's legs while keeping it between him and its fellows. The Hobgoblin didn't even give a cry of pain before it tried to make a swing at Shirou, but before his elbow could reach, Shirou ducked the blow and positioned his machete to strike, pushing its point upwards from the gape underneath the Hobgoblin's chest plate and straight up into its heart. Blood gushed from the wound as the heart burst and the monster gave a few spluttered gasps as its blood lost its flow of oxygen and died.

Releasing his hold on his machete, Shirou grabbed the fallen Hobgoblin's great sword with both hands, taking a wide step out from behind the Hobgoblin while swinging the sword with all his strength. The blade took another Hobgoblin in the face, cleaving its head right off its shoulders and causing a spray of blood to fly up into the air for a moment before the body collapsed to the ground in a bloody mess.

Rin watched with the others as Shirou took the creatures apart, until she noticed that some of the Hobgoblins had decided to go after them instead of Shirou. It would be up to her to help guide the others into taking out these two Hob… *Thud*… Alright one Hobgoblin. Shirou had retrieved his machete and thrown it into the second Hobgoblin's back.

Though even if it was only one Hobgoblin, her frontline fighters were all injured or too tired for the run to actually be of use, Yukari looked like she was about to pee herself and the Priests were both tired for healing all of Touma's injured, the run, and looked like they were about to pee themselves.

Well, if Shirou could handle a Hobgoblin or two by himself, then so could she. She was a genius after all. "Jeeru mea gram fel kanon, [Freezing Blood]!" Rin shouted, quickly casting her ice trap spell. The water in the air quickly gathered around the Hobgoblin's leg before freezing into a sold mass.

The creature stumbled and fell to the ground as its leg was ingolfed in an unexpected icy cast, but it wasn't going to stop it for long. The Hobgoblin was already working at smashing the ice, punching at it with its free hand and chipping away piece. But it had only been meant to hold him still for a moment anyways.

Megumin hadn't been the only one to learn a hardly practical finishing move. "Jess… yeen… sark… fram… dart… [Lightning]!" A pale flash came down from the clear sky, striking the Hobgoblin.

The [Lightning] spell, as impressive as it was, wasn't as powerful as real lightning, and even real lightning wasn't a sure kill. However, with so much of the Hobgoblin's body in contact with the ground and covered in metal, it would do a hell of a lot of damage, flashing through all of his muscles and skin in its search for the ground.

[Lightning]'s main disadvantage as a spell was that it targeted a position, rather than an individual. So if the enemy was moving, fat chance your going to hit it, not with its longer cast time. However, once the target is immobilized, it was a great finishing move. Just one that needed to be cast in a clearing, since being underground, in buildings, or even under trees made it useless.

After the spell was cast, Rin kept her eyes on the Hobgoblin, looking for any sign that it was going to get back up, but when it didn't move, she relaxed her shoulders and let out a breath.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." She said to herself.

"We spent too much time." Shirou said. He had killed the remaining two Hobgoblins and was returning to the group, holding the black scimitar of the goblin leader, all covered in blood.

Actually, everything about Shirou was currently all covered in blood. It seemed as though the Hobgoblins had a lot of it. It soaked his entire left side from when he had driving his machete into the first Hobgoblins heart and bits of it had been sprayed all over his body as he had killed the other three at melee range. However, he didn't seem to care about the blood in the slightest. Which Rin thought was weird, then she realized that she didn't care about it all that much either, beyond her analysis of Shirou's mental stability.

Perhaps another effect of whatever it was that brought them there. No point in kidnapping people to serve as soldiers if they all puck their guts out on the battlefield. No, that wasn't right, because the rest of the party still seemed squeamish in the presence of blood and death. Maybe it was just the adrenaline caused by being chased by an army of monsters that wanted to kill them.

…Oh, right. The monsters. Though they had killed this small 'elite' party, the horde was still behind them, and they had just had to slow down to deal with this somehow different goblin and his party. Rin had no idea what the black goblin was all about, but since he was already died it didn't really seem to matter much now.

Shirou retrieved his machete from the back of the Hobgoblin he had thrown it into, holding it in his left hand as he tested the balance between the two weapons. "We aren't going to be able to keep out running them. All of you keep going. I'll stay here and drive them off."

The party was shocked and started to try to argue Shirou out of it. All of them save for Rin.

Something about what he said seemed strange to her. He hadn't said that he would buy them time. He said that he would drive them off. As in continuing to kill them until they thought better of continuing their charge.

'Of course, I could buy you all the time in the world… but…'

"Archer's right." Rin said, silencing the group. "While our group can't outrun the horde while carrying our injured, Archer by himself has a better chance of doing as such. If we stay here, all we will do is drag him down."

Shirou looked at her with a puzzled expression. "I thought you of all people would call me an idiot."

"You are an idiot. You just also happen to be right." Rin said looking him in the eyes. "Don't you dare die on me. As some as it starts looking like you are in trouble, I want you to get out. Understood?"

"I won't die if I don't have to." Shirou said with a nod. "Now go, you're wasting time."

"Everyone let's move!" Rin shouted at them all. Some of them hesitated at first, but they didn't want to be left behind or face the army that they could hear approaching.

Once they were all in the woods again and moving back towards the city, Shirou smiled. He would not die there. They needed him too much for him to allow himself to die. He turned back to where they had come, with the sounds of hundreds of goblins coming closer. It was time for him to stop holding back.

His right hand was already drenched in blood, some of it even his own. So he didn't even need to cut himself to draw the circle on his blades. "O Light, may Lumiaris's divine protection be upon you." He said, smiling to himself as the goblins broke through the trees and came straight for him. He then shouted the final word, a word that felt like it had great meaning to him that he couldn't remember. "[SABER]!"

Light erupted from the blades, blinding the goblins as the divine power sharpened the blades to a razors edge.

And as the light died down, the massacre began.

* * *

 **This chapter is a bit shorter, and the next one probably will be too. Just felt like ending it here for some reason. Probably because this chapter is Shirou kicking ass, while next is Rin momentarily stumbling upon her magecraft in order to save their asses.**

 **If you want to know how many Goblins could realistically be thrown at them, a Goblin woman is supposed to be able to have three batches of kids a year, with each litter being four or five individuals... So a lot! The Goblins are considered the weakest race but still survive based upon pure numbers advantage.**

 **Shirou could kill a hundred of them every single day without putting so much as a dent in their population.**


	8. Chapter 8

"We… we just left him behind." Yukari said, her voice trembling with horror and her own exhaustion. Though she wasn't carrying as much weight as the others, they had still been moving nonstop for over twenty minutes, and Yukari was one of the few people who still have the breath needed to speak.

It had been a few minutes since they last saw a goblin and that time had let them believe that they truly were going to get out of this alive. And with that little bit of hope, regret was allowed to sink its fangs into them. The war cries of the goblins were now so distant that they couldn't hear them anymore, which while comforting in and of itself, the shouts of hatred and rage had at least been assurance that Shirou was still alive and fighting for them to scream at.

"Archer will be fine." Rin said forcibly. "He's too stupid to die, even if someone did kill him. So stop wasting your energy worrying and stay focused."

Her words were hollow. While she could give that advance, she wasn't able to go through with it herself. The fact that she had to run while he stood and fought was eating her up.

But what could she do? Mages were by nature individuals who supported from the back. In a fight with a Servant, a Master like her would be…

Rin was already feeling so empty, that she didn't even notice when her thought was snatched away from her. The only thing she could do was to keep moving forward. If they got back to the city there might have been a chance to get Shirou some reinforcements. But by the time they would arrive, he would have been fighting alone of more than half an hour by himself.

"There's no one he is a rookie like the rest of us." Yui said, her fingers clinging onto her staff as she ran. "He just kills and kills and kills without so much as flinching. He… he couldn't possibly be human. Yes, he's some kind of monster or something, isn't he?"

Rin glared at the girl. She had been the first one to throw herself at Shirou in order to save her own skin, but the moment his back was turned, she let her true feeling show. She was terrified of him and thought he was some kind of monster. He had stayed behind and risked his own life to give them a fighting chance, and this is what she thought of him. Shirou might not have been a perfect hero, but he deserved better.

A desolate hill, swords standing like grave markers, a lonely man betrayed by…

The thought was stripped away from her, leaving her feeling even more empty and angry than before. She played with the idea of simply casting a spell of the brunette girl. Knock her unconscious and leave her for whatever goblins might come by. See how she faired without Shirou's protection. The words were even forming on her tongue, when she spotted something in the woods beyond them.

"Marc em parc!" Rin shouted rapidly, bringing her staff around to point out into the brush off to the right of the party. The [Magic Missile] she fired was charged a fair amount more than the average one, Rin taking advantage of her large magic stores to try to deal more damage. There was a satisfying crack as the goblin she had hit was thrown back into a tree, smacking his head hard enough to cause some pretty heavy bleeding. "There are more of them! Richard, Sara, put down Touma and prepare to guard the line! Riku and Itsuki try to strafe around them! Aoi, Yui, Niko, guard our backs! Yukari support where you can!"

Three more goblins came rushing out of the bushes, trying to take advantage of the group before they could get battle ready.

Riku and Itsuki teamed up on one of them, while Sara and Richard were made to handle one each. Richard and Sara were both tired from carrying their own equipment all that way as well as supporting Touma's weight. However, the one Rin was most worried for was Sara. On top of being exhausted like the rest of them, she was also near blind at such close range, and with such a fast opponent.

"Jeeru mea gram fel kanon, [Freezing Blood]!" Rin shouted, focusing on the arms of the goblin Sara was fighting. Water condensed around the thin goblin's arms before freezing into solid blocks, stopping the creature from continuing to swing its sword around. As its joints were suddenly locked into place, it stumbled in surprise, barely managing to maintain its balance. "Sara, quickly, its arms are restrained!" She shouted at the girl, in case she was unable to see it.

Sara didn't say anything in response, just gave a sort of shout of anger and slashed at the goblin with her own sword, getting a grazing hit across its stomach. The goblin gave off a horrible shrieking sound as it was cut as stumbled back.

Sara stood over the goblin, shaking a bit, but finally grabbed her sword with both hands and stabbed downwards. Rin wondered if blindness made doing that particular act better or worse. Either way, Sara shivered at her first kill.

Rin was moving on to the next one, preparing to once again cast her restraining spell when the girls behind her shouted in panic. She spun around to find another group of three goblins coming towards them with weapons drawn.

Niko did her best to hold her staff up in order to guard attacks, and Aoi had her knife drawn, ready to strike. However, Yui was quickly backing up, too frightened to hold her ground. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, and they could hardly blame her. She was a shit fighter anyways. However, her backing away gave the goblins an open path to the completely immobile forms of Touma and Megumin, one that the goblin's seemed to be eying.

"No." Rin hissed, running back in order to put herself in the spot that Yui had just retreated from, holding her staff up at the ready. Prepared to do whatever she could.

But what could she do? She never learned any close quarters fighting from the Mage's Guild. She might have known something in her pervious life, but all that knowledge was gone now. She knew she had to cast a spell, but her mind racing too fast to find the words and formulas as she saw the goblins coming at them. She would just have to club at them as best she could and hope that it either works out or that one of the others manages to assist her.

Her eyes focused on the one in the front. The one that was going straight at her. It was holding a large straight knife. The edge of which was pointing towards her heart. She could see it. She could see in her minds eye; the knife being driven into her heart. She could practically feel the stab already, her sense the world going to silence.

Then… Rin snapped.

Magical energy flooded her body, causing her to feel giddy as a strange throbbing pain entered into her left arm. Then, formulas rushed into her mind. Thousands of formulas. Formulas that her family had been accruing for multiple generations. So many different forms of magecraft and different spells. All of it just appeared in her mind as if summoned from thin air.

A sort of zen like state took over her as she realized one thing; these goblins were pathetic. With her strength and skill, she could kill them with just her bare hands.

She lifted her left hand with all her fingers extended outwards, pointing towards the charging goblin. She had chosen one of the formulas, a particularly nasty curse that she felt very familiar with. Pale green blue lines appeared around Rin's left arm as she drew on her Od. "[Gandr]!"

The red and black blast had the same kind of size and speed to it as a cannon ball, leaving the goblin no time to dodge. It didn't even scream as the spell hit it head on, knocking it backwards. As the creature hit the ground, blood poured out of its mouth and eyes, its entire body physically paled and began to twitch with the weight of the curse. It wasn't going to die in an instant. This would be painful.

Rin's arm whipped about as she cast the spell again and again. "[Gandr]! [Gandr]! [Gandr]! [Gandr]!" Four more shots, four more downed goblins, each left praying that the end would come sooner as they were left in such a deuterated state of health that death was inevitable.

With the threat eliminated, Rin breathed a sigh of relief. Her magical energy receded and the glow on her left arm disappeared. Almost instantly, that something that was messing with their heads got to work on Rin, destroy the formulas before she could even try to gather up with willpower needed to protect them. Within seconds, all of it was gone, leaving only one hell of a headache in its place. She was angry about it, but too drained from all the running and casting all of those spells to be properly furious at what she had just lost. She could only hope to still remember what happened well enough later that she could be angry then.

"Rin, what was that?" Sara asked her with mouth left ajar.

"Can't talk. Guild secret." Rin lied quickly, catching her breath and holding up her head with one hand. God her head was killing her. "Keep moving. We need to keep moving." She said, gesturing towards Megumin and Touma. "We've getting close to the city. It's just a little farther."

She pointed up through the canopy of the trees and sure enough one could just make out the top of the city walls through the greenery. They were so close.

The bushes behind them began to shake and all of them who had the energy to still jump did so. But it wasn't another goblin ambush. "Onii-chan." Megumin said with all the energy she could muster.

Shirou looked dead on his feet. He was gasping for air, One of his eyes was closed in order to stop the blood that soaked his hair from dripping down into it. Cut littered his clothes. Rin wondered just how much of the blood on his was his own. He seemed to be struggling to keep his grip on his weapons. The black scimitar he had stolen was still there, and he still had his one hand sword, but his machete had been replaced with another one that was just slightly larger, and his old bow and quiver were both missing from when he had thrown them down.

She had questions, but not enough time. "Don't stand still. Keep moving." Rin said to everyone, no longer shouting her instructions like she had before. Riku and Itsuki sheathed their weapons and took their turn lifting up Touma, while Sara picked up Megumin. They all started moving again, back towards the city walls. "You alright?" Rin asked him, keeping it short to save air.

She had put too much energy into those spells she used. They were far more expensive than the ones she had used before. It was almost as if she hadn't been receiving any help from the elementals at all while casting them… Had she? She already couldn't remember, but that in itself told her that it had been magic from her pervious world.

"I'll live." Shirou mumbled as he continued on, his single open eye looking around the surroundings. "So many damn crossbows…" He gave a grunt of pain as he fingered a spot on his side, one of many on his body. "Led them down a different path… circled back around. Luckily goblins are short… not too hard to out run."

"You need healing?" Niko asked, looking to the blood covered Hunter with a puzzled expression.

Shirou shook his head. "Save your strength. I'll make it."

Three more minutes. That's all it took to get back to the city gate. Nothing attack them, but the tension of it all was enough to drive them crazy. Especially when the wind picked up in the trees momentarily sounded like the shrill cries of goblins. As they approached the city gates and the guards spotted them, some of the party began to weep while others fell down to their knees.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" On of the guards said in shock as he looked them over.

"Goblins. Lots of them." Rin managed to spit out. "I don't know if any of them are still following us."

The guard looked the party over, his eyes focusing on Shirou the hardest. "Alright, get inside. I'll contact the guard captain and see about locking down the gate until we get an idea of what is going on out there."

The party breathed a sigh of relief until the sound of a heavy thud reached their ears.

"Archer!" Rin shouted, seeing Shirou collapsed unceremoniously to the ground.

* * *

Shirou was slow to return to consciousness. His body didn't hurt, but he felt tired and there was a fog over his mind. "Ah, so you have finally awakened my friend." An extremely kind voice said.

Shirou turned his head to see a Priest standing there with a gentle smile. He was tall, with a shaved head and large ears. He wore robs, but of a different style than the ones normally worn by Priests, closer to that of a Buddhist monk, though Shirou couldn't remember what that was. He was holding a metal staff like any other Priest, though its top was in the shape of a bladed ring, rather than the solid mass or point that some of the other Priests had. The moment that he saw the man, a word came to his lips. "Ojizō-sama?"

The man started to chuckle. "You aren't the first to have called me that. Some have even managed to remember what the name meant long enough to tell me about it. Ojizō-sama was apparently a god in our previous world who took care of the souls of children who dead before their parents. He sounds like a good person, so I do not mind the comparison. However, I am no God. My name is Tsuga, and it is my pleasure to inform you Shirou-kun, that you are not dead. That hazy feeling you are experiencing right now is just because of how much blood you had lost. You appeared to have run quite a distance after being hit by multiple crossbow shots, though the wounds were rather shallow."

"Oh. That's good then. Did everyone else make it?" Shirou asked the man.

"Yes, your party is very much alright. They just need some food and rest to recover from their exhaustion. Kuro-kun went with your party to treat them to lunch after he fetched me to help you." Tsuga said.

"Kuro-senpai?" Shirou said, recognizing the name.

"Yes. I am the Priest who serves in the same party as Kuro-kun; Team Typhon Rocks. They are all interesting characters, but good people." Tsuga laugh and took out a stack of clothes. "He has also left some clothes here for you to ware until you can clean up your old set."

"Looks like I owe him again. Maybe I could cook him something. Do you know what kind of food he likes?" Shirou asked the man.

"I've never known Kuro to be very particular when it comes to food. However, it is the thought that counts. I'm sure he would be happy to receive anything." Tsuga said. "You know it was talking about you all of last week. Said he found an odd rookie how was unlike all the others. While at the time I took that with a grain of salt, I am starting to believe it. There really is something different about you."

"Just your imagination." Shirou chuckled and then took a deep breath to replace the oxygen. His blood really had been thinned down.

"You should probably stay home tomorrow. You won't be able to leave the city anyways. The city gate has been shut due to a rather large goblin raiding party." Tsuga said with a shrug. "From what we can gather from people who can understand pieces of their language, they seem to be shouting something about avenging a Prince. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Um…" Shirou didn't know what to say. His eyes just went to the black scimitar that he had stolen off of the dead 'Prince''s body.

Tsuga just laughed. "Don't worry. The goblins will eventually remember that they don't have any proper way of attacking a fortified area, after a few hundred of them are killed. I doubt there will be a single casualty on our side. After that they will return to the Ruin City and leave us in peace again. While they are honor bound to attack because the Prince died, they have over a hundred Princes. Goblin society as a whole will hardly care if one or two of them dies. Just go home and get your rest. You will have to be back on your feet once the gates are opened again."

* * *

Rin had been thinking ever since they had gotten back to safety. Thinking was the only thing she could do that would stop her from making a spectacle of herself. The sun was going down and she was still sitting on her bed, thinking.

After she looked around, there were so many hints that something was up that it was maddening.

Besides their party, the barracks provided for the Reserve Soldiers was empty. It could have been that the group that had appeared four weeks before them had simply done well for themselves and had decided to splurge the money needed to move out of the admittedly crummy barracks. Or it could have meant that every last one of them was already dead.

She asked the manager of the barracks and it turned out to be the latter option. As well as the group from the month before that. Entire party wipes. No survives. Each party disappearing within days of starting their new job. Since a normal party would be made up of two or three front liners, a mage with no spells, a Hunter who can't shoot an arrow, and a Priest, even a small group of three or four goblins might be enough to kill them.

No one would even investigate if they died.

On the goblins side of things, a normal set of rookies that lived long enough to move on from hunting goblins would have often been hunting goblins for the first month or two. Two months of having to kill around a goblin a day for each person just to make ends meet. So with on average twelve people killing on average one goblin a day for lets say forty days, that's just shy of five hundred goblins killed by each new set of rookies, and to prevent this, all the goblins have to do is turn the tables and hunt the rookies before they can get experienced.

They would know exactly where new rookies tend to hunt, and when they appear. They would round up a large number of goblins and search the woods for them. It would be easy to get the numbers required. They have a city with a population of nearly a million goblins nearby. And if the presence of so many higher-class goblins means anything, they were probably making a sport out of it. Like the old English nobles who hunted wild boar.

She had underestimated the goblins because people referred to them as simple monsters. They were not monsters. They might not have had human levels of intelligence and would throw themselves at the city wall for hours without realizing that they aren't going to get anywhere without siege weapons, but they were physically capable of using tools and mentally capable enough to create a language.

This wasn't man verses monster, this was a war between two peoples. A war that shouldn't have had anything to do with Rin and the others, but that they were now invested in for the same reason any commoner becomes invested in a war. For survivals sake.

That said, Rin wouldn't feel pity for them. They wanted the humans dead just as much as the humans wanted them dead. They were the ones that declared war when they first sided with the No Life King in his attempt to commit genocide on all humanity, the elves, the dwarves, the centaurs and various other races. If they were brought to extinction, then the war like goblin people would have earned their fate if you asked her.

Rin would not stop. After all, they still needed the money.

Which brought her to her next big headache. The fact that they hadn't earned a single copper that entire day, and that the next day they wouldn't be able to leave the city.

Not only that, they had been forced to leave Touma's sword behind in their mad dash for safety. The boy's armor was also mangled beyond use and would need to be completely replaced. Shirou used up all of his arrows and had to leave his bow behind, and then there were the provisions that they had hidden in the woods before they had started their serious hunting.

It hadn't been anything important. Just small items for maintaining their equipment, some tarps for if it rained, and the lunches that they had packed for that day. But if it wasn't still there when they got back, then it would all have to be replaced, costing them money they didn't have to spend.

There had been a bounty of thirty silver for the Goblin Prince, but without his body they couldn't collect it. The fact that the bounty was only for thirty silver showing how much of a joke people treated the goblins as. The joke didn't seem funny when they were using horde tactics and you were in the open field instead of safe inside of fortress walls.

The door to the room opened and Shirou walked in. He looked at Rin, surprised to see her before something clicked into place. "I guess we are going to be rooming together then." He said simply.

"Obviously. How would it look if I said that some of the girls are just going to have to suck it up and deal with rooming with a guy and then refused to do it myself?" Rin said, her tone harsh enough to make Shirou wince. She got up from her bed and walked over to him, looking him up and down. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah. I just need to take it easy for a little while my body replaced the blood I lost." Shirou said nervously.

"I'm glad." Rin said, giving Shirou a gentle and truly disarming smile. It was so disarming, that he had no time to react before her fist buried itself right in the center of his stomach. Shirou choked and fell down to his knees, clutching at his stomach. This hit had been far stronger than he had expected for someone of Rin's stature.

Rin flipped her hair back and glared down at Shirou as he finished collapsing to the ground. "Remember that the next time you decide not to tell anyone that you are bleeding to death, you jerk!" She shouted down at him before turning around and going back to bed, ignoring his pained whimpers as he tried to regain the ability to breath.

* * *

Lumiaris was not happy. Someone had managed to invoke one of his blessings without 'his blessing', effectively trespassing on his domain. Worse, it was a cheap copy of a power he had created. It was not something that had ever happened before, and it had caught the Light God's attention and sparked his anger.

However, when he went to try to investigate what had happened, he found his way bared by a giant white wolf. "Eldritch, what is the meaning of this?" Lumiaris demanded of the White Goddess.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about, Lumiaris. Perhaps you should try speaking and explaining what it is that you are after rather than just shouting at people. It tends to help with communication." Eldritch lifted her chin at such an angle as to make it look like she was smirking at him.

"Do not play me for a fool Eldritch! One of your Hunters invoked one of my blessings, intruding upon my domain! I demand…!"

" _ **There you go again, barking your demands like the obnoxious pup that you are.**_ " Eldritch's words weren't shouted so much as they were thrown at Lumiaris with the weight of her power behind him. " _ **An intrusion on your domain, is it? Perhaps I should start punishing your subjects who dare to intrude upon my domain. Who kill in my forests and scavenge them without my blessings.**_ " Lumiaris reeled back at the threat. " _ **Do not mistake the fact that I have never bothered to interfered with you before as to meaning that you are able to do whatever you want, Lumiaris. Unless you wish for the wilds themselves to become your enemy, leave my pack alone.**_ "

The power radiating from her was pure and wild. A power that existed outside of such young and childish ideals like good or evil. A power that was born alongside those life and death themselves. Lumiaris was a powerful god, made as such by the will of the humans who followed his ideals, but Eldritch, she was a force of the world, an idea of nature that would never change and far predated the Light God's own existence. Even with his power, Lumiaris was unsure of how conflict would go between himself as the Elder Goddess, but he was sure that it wasn't worth trying. Not over such a relatively small matter.

"Very well. So long as this is an isolated case, I will not pursue this any further. But if you are behind this, Eldritch. Then there will be bad blood between us two." Lumiaris said.

"There you go again, barking like a little puppy." Eldritch said, her playful tone returning. "As the humans say it, don't let the door hit you on the way out." Lumiaris glared but disappeared from view in a flash of light. "What a steer you are making, my little Hunter. You've already got Lumiaris's nickers in a twist." Eldritch said smiling to herself. "You should be glad that I like troublesome little puppies like you."

* * *

 **You know, that part with Rin doesn't seem as long on paper as it did in my head. Oh well.**

 **I assume you can all see the reason why everyone is going to eventually leave Rin and Shirou party, right? Yep, that's right! They are all going to get angry about how everyone makes fun of them for depending on mommy and daddy to take care of them, with Shirou taking on side hunting jobs with the Typhoon Rocks team too make the actual money while the rest of them aren't allowed to hunt in the grown up places, and have to have mommy and daddy around to save them in case they get a booboo.**

 **Team Kindergarten.**


	9. Chapter 9

It had been five days since the incident with the goblins, and things were going rough.

The goblin's attempts to raid the city lasted for no more than two hours, though the city gates remained closed for another day following it as the normal army wanted to be sure that the goblins weren't just waiting for the gates to open back up. They only allowing people back inside by using a rope ladder tossed down from the wall. Leaving the party to lick their wounds for a day, as they had no money to shop nor avenue to work. Over those first two days they realized just how much money they would need to make in order to take care of themselves.

While all of them could receive housing for just 30 copper coins a night, food was a bit more pricey. It was around 25 coppers a piece for a days' worth of food. Translating into 3 silver each day for the entire group just to eat. If one was willing to sacrifice substance and get by on just the bare minimum amount of nourishment, then you could scrap by with only 12 coppers, but that had been the one spot where Shirou had put his foot down.

He and Rin had argued about it, but Shirou was not going to let up on the topic of food. An army matched on its stomach. If they were exhausted from hunger and it caused mistakes in the field, then that could cost lives. The food was an absolute most, more important than even having a roof over their heads. In the end, Shirou had just went and bought the food himself with his own money. Rin had not been pleased… not about his actions anyway, she had found the food itself to be satisfactory.

Tsuga's predictions about how the battle would go down between the goblins and the humans proved accurate, as more than five hundred of the creatures died before they wised up and left, having not killed a single human.

But even once the city did open back up and the new rookies went back out into the open world, things didn't get much better. They had been disappointed to find that the goblins had looted their own dead, leaving nothing behind but the bodies. This included Shirou's discarded bow, and the arrows that he had shot. It was actually something that really ate at him. The idea that a goblin was using HIS bow and HIS arrows. Odd to form an attachment to the items so quickly, but Shirou just supposed that he was a hoarder of weapons by nature. He vowed to one day track down the bow and every single one of those arrows and kill the goblins that took them.

The revisiting of the location of the battle did however give the party a look into what Shirou had done to the goblins. Two hundred goblins lay dead in that clearing. A testament to just how scary Shirou could be. Too bad the goblins didn't seem to register just how many of them were dying. Either anger for their prince's death had blinded them, or they simple think about anything besides that they still outnumbered Shirou.

Being so badly burned had left most of them paranoid. Or in Rin and Shirou's cases, even more paranoid than before. Rather than going straight into the forest and towards likely hunting spots, they wasted time and energy going to places were the goblins would be unlikely to look for them if they were the ones being hunted. When they came across a group or even single individuals, they were more careful to scout things out properly.

Not only that, but the pickings were slim as well. All of the normal goblins had returned to the city after the disaster that was their attempt to kill Shirou, leaving only the mudgoblins behind. Mudgoblins were the bottom rung of goblin society and were forced by their culture to own nothing more than a necklace talisman containing symbols of some sort of accomplishment that they had achieved. The thing was that most of them hadn't ever 'achieved' anything. Meaning the party sometimes would kill a goblin only to end up with nothing for it.

In four days, they had killed thirty goblins and had hardly made a single silver to split among the entire party. They needed to go and hunt further into the goblin's territory, but a majority of the party was too scared to, and while Shirou could probably have gone alone, Rin didn't want him to fight all by himself again. Money was becoming a problem, but it wasn't that bad yet.

This was mostly because Shirou had taken a bow off of a dead goblin and used it to do some hunting to subsidize their food expenses. He had also shown his knowledge when it came to what in the forest was edible. Because of that, they hadn't needed to spend much on food since they had returned to work.

It had taken this for Rin to confess that Shirou becoming a hunter was not an absolutely terrible idea. It was just a bad idea.

That day, Shirou had tracked down a three-hundred-pound flat faced boar. He had literally brought home the bacon. Cooking it was proving to be a bit of a challenge, with so many different types of meat available. But Shirou enjoyed the challenge. At least no one was crying about him killing the rather ugly looking boar like when he had shot the feral mane horned dog. The tearful eyes from Megumin had been enough for him to agree to never do it again… though the girl still slept using its skin as a blanket.

Honestly, Shirou didn't understand kids.

Shirou had separated out all of the meats and placed what he had planned on saving for later in a large chest filled with ice that Rin had made using magic. The look she had given him when he had requested it of her had been pure venom, but she did eventually agree that it did make the most sense.

That night, Shirou would be mostly working with the meat from the arms, shoulders, legs and hips, cooking it in a sort of crock pot made from two pans, one large one filled with the boiling water, around a smaller one that housed the meat. He had added some wild garlic and clove he had managed to gather on the day's hunt to add flavor.

For a side dish he was preparing some wild beans and some grains that he found into a dish that resembled beans and rice. He would have liked to have made enough of the stuff to act as a main course, but he hadn't gathered enough for people to have more than a good taste. Same went for the jam he had made from crape berries.

In order to get most of the grains they would need in their diet, they had to buy them. Still, hunting had cut their food costs from 3 silver a day down to just 50 coppers. He wasn't able to buy things like cheese or butter, and his ingredients were limited to the things he could find as they walked through the forest, but it was better than going on nothing but stale bread.

He had already set everything up and would only need to make sure that the water didn't boil away while he waited for it to cook over the next hour, so he just leaned back in his chair and enjoyed the smell and sounds of cooking as he worked at tanning the boar's skin. The fur was too rough and prickly to act as a blanket, but he thought that if he could make some dyes out of wild flowers then maybe Megumin might like to use it as a sort of canvas to paint on.

He just had to make sure he boiled down the boar brains before anyone noticed what exactly he was using for oils.

"Well, something smells nice in here. Can't remember that ever happening back when I lived in these barracks." Kuro said as he entered into the room with his usual shitfaced grin.

"Kuro-senpai, I wasn't expecting you." Shirou said, giving the man a smile of his own. While Kuro was odd he was at the very least friendly and sympathetic, and he had grown on Shirou a lot. "Would you like to join us for dinner? My hunt went well, so I think we could manage another mouth just fine."

"You shouldn't make people offers like that, otherwise they might accept!" Kuro laughed and held up a large bottle of some kind of alcohol. "Sure boy, I'll join you, but only because you asked with food. Luckily I decided to bring some drinks of my own." He pulled up a chair and sat across from Shirou. "So, how has this world been treating you guys?"

Shirou's smile turned apologetic. "Well, I suppose we have had our troubles. We can't seem to make ends meet on just mud goblins and my party is still too shaken to go in any deeper. I would go myself, but Rin doesn't want me to go it alone."

"Yeah, kind of figured. About this time, you kids should be running into some serious financial problems, am I right?" Kuro said scratching his chin and giving Shirou a huge smile. "Well, be glad that you got a senpai like me looking out for you. How would you like to join in a raid?"

Shirou cocked an eyebrow and waited for Kuro to continue.

* * *

"A raid huh." Rin said as they all sat down around the dinner table.

"That's right. The Orion clan has managed to get intel on a large supply shipment the Orcs are making to their observation outputs, the Dead Head Fortress. The estimated value of the shipment has been placed at just over a thousand gold." Kuro said, smirking as he ate. "The thing is that these shipments are usually guarded by around two hundred Orcs. The Orion clan wants the stuff, but they know that with just their own people, they would be running a bit risk. So, they have reached out to other teams in hopes of boosting their numbers up until they could take it without any risk. My team is one of those that was called on. They are offering us fifty gold to participate, plus we get to keep the loot from any Orcs we kill during the raid."

"Fif…fifty gold! Fifty gold in just one day." Riku squawked in surprise. "Just how dangerous a job is this?"

"It's dangerous I guess, but not all that dangerous. It's more that the payoff is really high, and they want to do it without involving the regular army. If Orion can manage to pull this off while only using just us reserve boys, then they get to keep the money all from the supplies all to themselves, while they could go and report this to the regular army, they would probably not see any more than a gold coin for the info." Kuro said with a shrug. "The thing is, one of our party members, Sakanami, has disappeared off of the face of the Earth again. This happens all the time, so we're all sure that he's fine, but we had already promised Orion that we would provide six warm bodies, and we can't go back on our word."

"So, you want to bring Archer along with you. Is that what you're saying?" Rin said her posture and expression remained unreadable as she both ate and talked to the man.

"He'll be paid ten percent of our team's stake in this. Five gold, plus whatever he manages to kill himself he gets to keep. I'll also provide him was a bow that is worth a piss, since that one you got from the goblins ain't worth shit." Kuro said with a toothy grin.

"The money isn't worth much if he's dead." Rin said, trying to act dismissive about the amount. The five gold would be able to last them months. They could start buying basic necessities like clothes, without worrying about if it could mean that they are going to become homeless because of it.

Many of the others were probably thinking along the same lines. Though none of them said anything. Their eyes were wide and hopeful.

"Tell me more about Orion. You said that they are going up against two hundred Orcs. What are the Orion clan's chances against that?" Rin asked the man.

"Pretty good. Orion is a clan of thirty experienced individuals, almost all of them Warriors. They are also requesting assistance from four other teams, bringing the total number of people involved up to around forty-nine. With forty-nine experienced fighters ambushing a group of a hundred Orcs, I'm pretty sure we can handle it without many casualties. We will have traps and blessing prepared before the battle starts, so it should be a piece of cake." Kuro said with a wink. "As for Shirou, he may be a rookie, but he held his own in a scrap with the commander. No one would question it if we brought him along."

"Without many casualties, huh." Rin said with a sigh. "I suppose in this business, nothing comes without a risk. So Archer, are you planning on accepting his offer?"

Shirou didn't answer immediately. He thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. "It's a lot of money for us. Enough so that we won't need to do anything risky for a while afterwards. Kuro-senpai agreed to pay our party up front. Even if something does happen to me, it will buy you all time to figure something out."

"Won't have to do anything risky afterwards, huh?" Rin said, not sounding too happy about it. "It seems to me that when ever anything actually risky is to be done, you are the one doing it."

"And when someone has to take the lead, its usually you, isn't it?" Shirou said, giving her a smile. "Everyone has their role in life. This one is mine."

"I see, fine then." Rin said before looking back to Kuro. "You said that Orion is a clan of mostly Warriors. They wouldn't be opposed to having another Mage supporting them, would they?"

"Rin, you can't be serious!" Shirou said, realizing exactly what she was implying.

"You are the last person I want to hear that line from, Archer." Rin snapped back at him. "I might not have the right to stop you from doing whatever you want, but you can't stop me either."

"The party needs you too much for you to risk yourself like that." Shirou said, trying to talk her out of it.

"And they don't need you? I might be the best mage the party has, but you are their best fighter, and the only cook." Rin pointed out. "I'm going."

Niko shot up at the mention of cooks being in trouble. "No more good food?" The girl haired Priests mumbled aloud. "Maybe I need to go too… in case food needs healing."

"No Niko, I'm sure there will be plenty of Priests there." Shirou said, his eyebrow twitching a little. The girl had strange priorities. According to Yui, she only scrapped by basic training because the High Priest kept threatening to not feed her if she didn't produce results.

"Anyone else notice how Shirou and Rin always talk about the party as if they aren't in it?" Riku pointed out, seeming rather unhappy about the fact that all of this was basically going to decide their future, but that they had no right to have a say in the matter.

"They'd probably be wanting more Mages, but can you even fill the part? No offense girly, but you've only been around for about two weeks. Can't imagine you know anything beyond that crappy first-stage [Mystic Missile] spell." Kuro said looking Rin up and down. Shirou throw the man a glare.

"I'm able to cast [Freezing Blood], [Lightning], [Scorch], [Shadow Echo], and [Earth Needle], and I have enough reserves to cast each of them multiple times in a day." Rin informed the older soldier. "I should be able to provide assistance."

Kuro's eyes widened, and he gave a whistle. "Damn, all of that in two weeks? Guess Shirou ain't the only one that's strange."

"No, Archer is the only strange one around here. I'm just a genius." Rin said throwing back her hair and giving a confident smile.

Kuro began to laugh. "Shirou-kun, your girl's a piece of work." He said giving Shirou a hard slap on the shoulder.

"Not my girl. More like my boss." He said with a sigh. "Rin, it is going to be dangerous."

"That's fine. After all, if I am in the danger zone, then you'll just have to stay in the backline with me in order to protect me. Meaning you will remain where an Archer belongs instead of diving into the thick of it. And if you do try to run in, then I can just freeze your feet to the ground." Rin said, openly admitting her plan. She wanted Shirou not to participate on the frontline, and she was planning on making sure he didn't. "So, will I be allowed to join in?"

"I think we can swing it. I'll have to talk to Rock though." Kuro said taking a drink of his… drink? Honestly, Shirou didn't know what was in the bottle. Rum maybe? "Have to worn you though, some of the boys are kind of perverts. Hope you don't take offense."

"It will be fine. I know how to let people know that I'm not interested." Rin said coolie.

"That will only make things worse." Kuro laughed before getting up from the table. "I'll be heading out now, got some prep work to do myself. Everyone is gonna be gathering up at Sherry's tomorrow at sundown. We'll be heading off at night and setting up traps for the ambush. The real battle will be tomorrow around high noon if the tuskfaces ain't too late or early. Food and drink are usually provided, but it tends to not be so great… not that there is really much to complain about when it's free."

Kuro said his goodbyes and headed out the door, ruffling Megumin's hair on the way out.

* * *

 **Rin's magic crest still exists, and is still part of her body, but she doesn't know how to access it properly yet. She will eventually realize its existence and start fiddling with it outside of combat situations, but it will be a while before she is throwing around Gandrs. Not that I'm sure she would want to at that point, since Elemental magic is more cost effective than relying purely on your own prana reserves to cast your mysteries. The only reason Gandr is so useful for her is because she encoded it into the magic crest in order to remove the need for a chant. If she does the same with say, the basic fireball spell, then that would already be more direct damage than Gandr, which was supposed to be a spell which influences the targets health and needs to be overcharged in order to do physical damage.**

* * *

 **I'm not calling out any single person here when I say this, because honestly people say it a lot, but everyone who has never wrote anything before, shut up about spell check. It really doesn't help as much as you seem to think, and the fact that you all seem to be under the impression that I don't realize it exists is insulting.**

 **I am, as my name suggests, a DYSLEXIC writer. I will not be able to do proper proof reads, because for me 'left' and 'felt' look exactly the same. And guess what, if you make that mistake, spelling and grammar checks don't catch it, because they are both past tense verbs. Every time you point this out, all it does is make me wonder why I publish my writings in the first place when people who have never wrote anything before can clearly do a better job than me.**


	10. Chapter 10

Shirou and Rin walked into the tavern an hour before sundown.

They had all decided, or Rin had decided and they all couldn't think of a good argument against it, that it wasn't a smart idea for they to go hunting right before Rin and Shirou would be leaving for the raid. They were supposed to take that day and the following day off in order to get their lives in order within the city walls while Rin and Shirou were off. With the five-gold paid up front, the party would have enough money for spare clothes, razors, and other small goods, though Rin warned them to be conservative with their spending.

Shirou had spent the majority of the day preparing meals for the others to eat while he was gone, patched a few holes in the roof and generally cleaned up the barracks. Rin had teased him for working on his day off but stopped when he pointed out that she had spent it reading a book on the construction of vessels that can house an Elemental and learning a new spell; [Air Shield]. Things that could equally be considered work.

As it turned out, they were both workaholics. Shirou was just better with his hands, while she stuck to brainwork. Rin did however find it annoying that the landlord refused to give Shirou any sort of compensation for his work on the Barracks, not even one free night. While the work was for their own benefit, they man still should have given Shirou something.

Rin had left a little over half of the money with Sara in a bank account, along with strict instructions on how to ration it in order to last several months if need be. Riku hadn't seemed to like that timid Sara was being put in charge while Rin was away, but so long as Shirou and Rin came back alive, it wouldn't matter anyways. Rin would be back at the reigns before Sara ever had to take them out of the gates.

"Oy! Kid, girly! Back here!" Kuro shouted at them as he saw them walking through the door. Though he shouted, he was still hard to hear over the noise that filled the room. The two rookies might have missed him if it wasn't for how attention grabbing his team looked. "'Bout time you kids got here."

"We were just finishing taking care of some last-minute arrangements." Rin said crossing her arms as they approached, though Shirou accepted the strong handshake that the goateed veteran offered him.

"Thank you for inviting us, Kuro-senpai." Shirou said, paying his respect to the unusual senor.

"So, these are those 'Super Rookies' that you were talking about? They don't look like hot shit." One of the people sitting at Kuro's table said as he gave Shirou and Rin a quick look over. Shirou noticed that his eyes spent a little longer on Rin.

The man was a bit on the short side, dressed in darkly colored light armor with the only linked mail being that of his gauntlets. Shirou wasn't sure if his hair was brown with bits of blond, or if his hair was completely blond and simply has so much grim in it that it looked to be colored brown. Either way, his greasy haired stuck up and was push back in a very interesting hair style. One that Shirou couldn't help but feel like he had seen somewhere before, as it made the word 'mongrel' come to mind.

His skin was in similar condition to his hair, darkened into a serious tan and more than a little dirty. He had a scar over his nose, completing the rough look. Guy looked like absolute scum.

"Well, whatever." The guy scoffed, turning his head away from them and to an impressively large mirumi that was on the table, curled up like a cat. It wasn't one of the domesticated breeds, but rather a while breed that he must had tamed somehow. He scratched the creature behind the ear as he talked. "It was Kuro's idea to bring you weaklings along, so you can be his problem."

"Come on Rock, no need to be unfriendly. I'm telling you that these two are hot shit." Kuro said, laughing in his usual friendly manner. "Come on, just introduce yourself."

"You already told them my name stupid. No need for me to give it out." Rock said with a scoff. "Though I suppose someone should be telling them that I'm the leader of this rag tag group. So if you want our help, don't piss me off."

Rin glared at the man, seeming to want to give him a few chose words of her own, but Tsuga saved them by stepping forward. "I've already been acquainted with Shirou-kun, but I this is the first time the two of us have met. I am Tsuga, the group's Priest. I look forward to working with you." The man said in the manner of a perfect gentleman. "Sorry about Rock. He's actually a very good person, he just likes to have his bad boy act."

"Shut up you damned Priest!" Rock shouted, giving the kindly Priest a serious looking glare. "I keep telling you people I ain't a good guy! I don't care about doing the right thing! If it hasn't got anything to do with battle, booze or bitches I'm not interested! If I 'happen' to save people along the way to getting one of those three things than I can hardly be held responsible for that!"

"So… he the Dread Knight you mentioned?" Shirou asked Kuro with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually, that would be me." A man wearing a pair glasses so fashionable that it made one question whether he had any sort of problem with his eye sight. His hair was gelled by and he wore a sharp white military suit, complete with a pocket-watch chain… whatever a pocket watch was. He looked like the smuggest pretty boy who ever existed. If Shirou had been forced to guess a class for him, he would have guessed either Priest or Paladin, so hearing that the man was a Dread Knight was a bit surprising. "I am Moyugi, I'm glad to have you on board. We rarely get guests. Please, may I ask you for your name?" Moyugi asked, looking directly at Rin with a charming smile.

"I'm Rin, and this is Archer." Rin said gesturing toward Shirou while giving her own smug smile.

"My name is Shirou." Shirou said with a sigh. "Don't go spreading that nickname around."

"Rin, a dignified name for a dignified lady." Moyugi said, going down on one knee in front of her and holding out his own hand as if inviting her to let him kiss hers.

Rin just stood there with her arms crossed. "Aren't you the guy who Kuro said wanted to 'taste' all the women in the world."

Moyugi flinched at her words and gave Kuro a glare. "Kuro you bastard, you broke the bro-code!"

"No, I'm enforcing the bro-code. The girly's already spoken for by my junior here." Kuro said, pointing his thumb at Shirou.

"We aren't dating." Rin said sharply before Shirou had a chance to.

"Of course you two aren't. You're already fuckbuddies." Kuro said, someone saying it with a completely neutral face.

"Excuse me!?" Rin shouted as she turned bright red, her jaw dropping before throwing Shirou a glare. "What kind of crap did you tell him?"

"I never said anything like that! I have no idea where he gets this stuff from!" Shirou said, equally flushed and putting his hands up in defense.

"No, I'm sure I remember hearing that you two are sharing a room." Kuro said, nodding sagely.

"With two other girls in the room." Shirou said sharply.

"Three girls at once!" Moyugi said with a gasp before biting his thumb. "Damn, the new rookie works fast."

"Would the both of you stop purposely misinterpreting things." Tsuga said with a sigh before giving Shirou and Rin an apologetic smile. For the man to put up with this group every day… he must be a true Saint. "Well, that only leaves one member of our group let to introduce you to." Tsuga said pointing towards the last individual at the table. "This is Kajita."

It hadn't been like Rin or Shirou hadn't seen the man already. He was a guy who was hard to miss, no matter where you put him. Standing in at around six foot eight, he was a whole head and shoulders above everyone else in the room.

Kajita was completely bald with the only hair on his head being a thin mustache, and his eyes were hidden by a pair of black shades. This along with his black leather jacket, torn up jeans, and several leather belts that both held up his pants and strapped his massive great sword to his back, gave him the look of a gangster from the yakuza… though this didn't really seem to bother Shirou at all.

What did bother him was that the man's extremely oversized great sword was even more extremely oversized than the average one unusually held by Warriors, and so much of its weight was at the odd mushroom shaped tip of the blade that it would throw him off balance every time he swung it. The thing weighed a hundred pounds ten times more than a traditional great sword. Kajita had adapted to this fact with a very particular fighting style that revolved around kicks in order to fill his openings, but it was a stupid and suicidal style... Why did Shirou feel like a hypocrite all of the sudden?

After being introduced Kajita snapped his fingers, gave them a thumbs up and smiled at the two of them, but didn't say anything.

"Kajita doesn't really talk all that much." Tsuga explained.

"Well… it's nice to meet you all. Please take good care of us." Shirou said politely, earning him a scoff from Rock.

"You know, I was kind of expecting Kuro to be the weirdest member of his party, but he seems relatively normal." Rin said with a shake of her head.

"Ha, you think these guys are weird, you should me Sakanami! Now that guy is a riot and a half!" Kuro laughed for long enough to make Rin and Shirou worried about what kind of many this 'Sakanami' was. But eventually Kuro calmed down. "Anyways, here's that bow I promised. Should have some nice oomph behind it."

Kuro removed a longbow from his back and handed it to Shirou, along with a quiver full of arrows. Shirou glanced at the quiver as he took the items from the Hunter turned Warrior.

"Twenty-five arrows. So, you want me to kill twenty-five Orcs? That doesn't leave much for the rest of you." Shirou said, giving Kuro a playful smirk.

Kuro smirked right back. "Don't get too too full of yourself kid. These Orcs are going to be nothing like those Goblin's you've been hunting. They will be trained and equipped as a professional military unit. Full armor covering vitals. You aren't going to be getting one shot one kills on them."

"Unless I use that secret technique I copied from you." Shirou said back.

Kuro blinked and then his jaw dropped open. "Hey, don't talk about your senpai's super-secret technique like that! And what do you mean you can use it!?"

"Secret technique, the fuck is he talking about?" Rock asked, finally seeming interested.

"The one he uses to shot arrows through armor. I used it myself to shot through the Goblin Prince's shield and breastplate a few days back." Shirou explained. "It isn't all that complicated. All you have to do is…"

Kuro jumped onto of Shirou and forcibly covered his mouth with his hands. "Don't tell anyone about how to do the Super Kuro Death Shot! Don't use it either! It's my technique!"

"'Super Kuro Death Shot'? Since when does you shooting an arrow have a name?" Tsuga asked, rather perplexed by his teammate's odd behavior.

"Since this little bugger figured out how to do it and I had to patent the technique!" Kuro declared, standing up tall and putting his hands on his hips in a proud manner.

Rock began to laugh before asking the question that was on all of their minds. "The fuck is a patent?"

"I… Don't know!" Kuro admitted, maintaining his pose.

"It is good to see that your party are all still in good health, Rock." Someone said as they approached the group.

The speaker couldn't have been more different from the Typhoon Rocks team if he tried. The after member of Kuro's team was unwashed, minimally armored, if they had any armor at all, and looked like the kind of people you didn't want to meet in a darkened alley. This guy was cleanly washed, shaven and with even bowl cut hair. He was dressed in bright and shining steel armor with bronze trim and large white cape boasting the design of his clan, seven stars arranged in an X.

The armor and cape looked rather familiar, probably because Shirou had seen it all before… Kimura was standing right next to the guy in the same exact uniform. Shirou made a point in not looking at the guy. He hadn't seemed to have noticed them, so maybe they could get by without an incident. Rin also appeared to have not noticed him, either that or didn't consider him to be worth mentioning. It was more likely the latter of the two.

"Just make sure you get all of this extra energy out of you now. I'd rather you not get too excited and ruin the ambush again." The man said with a polite smile.

"Fuck you, Shino! I didn't need any damn ambush! Me and my boys just blew through them like a tornado!" Rock shouted at the guy, giving him the finger.

"Who's the poster boy?" Rin asked Tsuga.

"That would be Shinohara, the leader of Orion." Tsuga said with a shrug. "He and the boss have run into each other a few times since Shinohara first established his Clan and the two of them have very different views of the world. Shinohara believes that Volunteer Soldiers are like knights who the people should be able to look up to, while the boss thinks of us as more of bandits with government approval. With how different their ideals are, they tend not to get along."

"Still, whenever things get tough, he always calls on us to provide the real fighting strength that his clan sorely lacks." Rock scoffed, grabbing a beer off of the table and taking a long swig. "Just be glad you pay well."

"I always thought that your assistance had more to do with wanting to get into Hinata's skirt than the pay." Shinohara half whispered with a small smile. Rock looked just about ready to pull his sword out at that comment.

"Hinata?" Rin repeated with a quirked eyebrow.

"A female Paladin who is something of an idol among their Clan, and as such completely off limits to everyone outside of it." Moyugi explained, giving Rin a smile. "The forbidden fruit is by far the sweetest." Rin's eyebrow twitched as the Dread Knight licked his lips.

It seemed that her talking had managed to gain Kimura attention and the thick glasses Warrior suddenly recognized her. "Wait, aren't you that new rookie girl? What are you doing here?" Kimura said looking at Rin with genuine puzzlement, and perhaps a bit of a flush. "I wouldn't due for a lady such as yourself to be dealing with such unscrupulous characters."

Rin couldn't help but laughing at the man's choice of words. "Isn't your clan doing business with these 'unscrupulous characters'." She teased. "As for why I am here, Archer and I are joining team Typhoon Rocks in order to be part of the raid."

"Archer?" Kimura said before looking around the group and spotting Shirou. "Oh no, not you again!"

"Do I really deserve that kind of reaction." Shirou mumbled to himself.

"Is something the matter, Kimura?" Shinohara asked, giving his subordinate a look of query.

Kimura looked from his Clan leader to Shirou and then back again. "This is that Rookie I was telling you about." Kimura said, trying to regain his composure.

"…You mean the psychotic one who seemed to want to kill you the second he stepped out of the tower? The one who had tried to throw a burning oil flask at you?" Shinohara said looking at Shirou in a new light. A light that made Shirou rather uncomfortable.

"I didn't try. I was just… weighing the option." Shirou said, not making a very convincing argument. Even some of the boys from Typhoon Rocks were giving him looks.

Rin began to laugh. "Oh yes Shirou, that makes it sound so much better." She said through her chuckles. "I was only keeping the option of killing the man I just met open."

"I wouldn't have killed him, just injured him enough to make sure he wouldn't be a threat." Shirou said awkwardly. Rock's team broke out laughing, save for Tsuga who just shook his head in tired resignation. "What? He had a sword, and we were all unarmed."

"The sword!" Kimura said, gawking at Shirou. "I can't believe it, you actually stole that sword!"

It took Shirou a second to realize what sword the man was talking about. He did indeed have the sword that Kimura had very specifically told him not to try to steal strapped to his waist. "I didn't steal it. The Commander gave it to me."

"After you pointed it's edge at his throat." Rin added, a smile on her face. She was enjoying this.

"You mugged the Commander and stole his sword!?" Kimura shouted, they were staring to get looks from around the bar as people quieted down in order to listen in.

"…He attacked us first." Shirou said into the awkward silence. "He said I could have it, after I had already put the blade away. Rin was the one who stole his knives."

Rin just shrugged. "If he wanted to keep them, he shouldn't have thrown them."

"You know Kuro, I take it back. These two are great. If they can prove they know how to fight, we'll keep 'em." Rock said with a huge grin. Kuro returned the grin and gave a thumbs up.

Shinohara didn't look nearly as happy. "Rock, these kids are just Rookies. You can't bring them out to fight against a trained Orc escorting party."

"Huh!? Why the fuck can't I!?" Rock shouted at the man. "They may be Rookies, but they have MY personal seal of approval! You got a problem with my people then you can just do your fancy pants raid without us and we'll see how well you do!"

Shinohara went silent. Shirou could practically see the gears going around in his head. Rock had just called him out in front of nearly half of the Crimson Moon Reserves. Now he had two choses, agree to let Shirou and Rin to join in the raid and show just how much he depended on Rock's team to get the job done, or lose out on at the very least five extremely skilled fighters, each with at least seven years' experience under their belts. Either way, his reputation would take a hit. He would either look either desperate for help, or too petty to take assistance that would insure his people's safety just because the one offering was an asshole.

In the end, he decided on the course of action that would risk the least number of lives. "I can't be held accountable for their safety. If something happens to them, it will be on your head." Shinohara said, keeping his cool headed demeanor.

"I'll add it to the list of 'things that are on Rock's head'." Rock said with a mocking voice and a dismissive gesture.

"We'll be leaving soon, so finish your drinks and head towards the back of the tavern." Shinohara said before walking away, Kimura walking behind him.

"Uptight pricks." Rock grumbled from behind the rim of his flagon.

"So, we have your personal seal of approval, do we?" Rin said, giving the leader of the group a sideways look.

"I just said that crap to get back at Shino. Don't let it get to your head. You still have to prove yourselves as being useful." Rock said with a scoff getting up from the table and letting his mirumi pet to climb up his arm and perch itself on his shoulder. "Come on, we've got a battle to win."


	11. Chapter 11

Working with Rock's team and the Orion Clan was a very strange experience for Rin.

The Orion might have listened to one too many fairytales about knights in shining armor, but they did take things seriously. Maps, plans, tactics, they thought through every step of their encounter carefully, save for one rather glaring detail, team Typhoon Rocks.

Rocks team wasn't so much given a formation and part in the plan of how to best take down the Orcs, as they were just given a location to go wild in without fear of interfering with the rest of the group. Rock and his compatriots didn't come up with any plans of their own, and other than Shirou, Tsuga and herself, none of them even attended the prebattle meeting.

According to Tsuga, all of the individuals in Typhoon Rocks were actually frontline solo fighters, even Tsuga himself, making him one of the only solo Priests. They only partied together whenever they all happened to be in the same place at the same time, or if something big was coming up, they would seek each other out. Then after the fighting, they would each get distracted by something or other and break off from the group until they all bumped into each other again. Even when they were all together, they didn't work with each other, just all fought on the same battlefield. They only really worked together if the target was big enough to warrant it.

But even though the team was made up of cannons so loose that they flew straight through the side of the ship before the ship even left port, Shinohara was still betting on them handling around half of the Orc soldiers by themselves. A startling twenty Orcs each, if you didn't count Shirou or Rin, and there was another elite group of six members within Orion that was being counted on to handle a third of what remained.

After all was said and done with the traps, the typhoon, and Orion's honor guard, the remaining forty soldiers were only expected to be able to handle one soldier a piece on average.

Shinohara was genuinely surprised when Rin and Shirou, who were supposed to be a part of Typhoon Rocks, asked what position they were supposed to take on the battlefield.

After a short explanation of the spells Rin had to work with and an only slightly longer demonstration of Shirou's sword and archery skills, which had left the older soldiers in shock, they were told to take up a position with a group of other ranged support units which was composed of one other Mage, a young Hunter, two Priests, and a Warrior meant to protect them from charges. After that, they were requested to help in the setting up of traps. Shirou was put to work digging up pitfalls, while Rin was asked to help in the preparation of what would be an avalanche of chopped down trees.

"Jeeru mea gram fel kanon, [Freezing Blood]." Rin said as she held her hand to a particularly large tree. The water within the tree rapidly cooled and expanded, building up pressure until it burst. With a low cracking sound, the tree's trunk burst open near the base of the tree on the opposite side as where Rin had been standing. The tree then tipped and fell over, hitting the ground with a loud rustle of branches. Soon the Warriors would descend upon it with their hatches, cutting off the branches before dragging it off into position near the mud slide they had created. They wouldn't need to sharpen the end to a point. Rin's method of breaking down the tree had left the end plenty sharp.

It was a bit harder to perform [Freezing Blood] on the inside of a living thing rather than the surface, but the natural magic resistance of a tree wasn't nearly so great as that of an animal.

Rin was about to move on to the next tree that had been marked for chopping when a voice stopped her. "You should stop that." A girl with long dark blue hair and blue eyes said in a monotone voice. She was one of the Priests, dressed in the usual Priest colors of white and blue. It caused an unusual affect in the dark of the night, as her pale skin and the white of her clothes seemed to glow while the blue of her hair and the darker areas on her clothes were too dark to be seen properly.

"Excuse me?" Rin asked, not sure what the girl meant.

"You shouldn't waste your magic before a fight. If you use it all up now, then you won't have enough to cast your spells come time for battle." The girl said.

"Mary, don't go spreading that nonsense of your to others! It's bad enough that we have a Priest who won't heal us, I don't want to have a mage who won't cast spells either!" One of the Warriors shouted at the girl. Mary gave the man a withering look that caused him to shiver and shut his mouth.

Rin however was thinking carefully about what the girl said. "Conserve magic until it is the most useful. You have a point there." She admitted. "However, I can save the Warriors a lot of hassle if I expend my magic to do the worst of the labor for them. I think it would be better in our current circumstances to have a spent mage rather than Warriors who are physically exhausted and prawn to making mistakes that could cost their lives." Rin said before going back to the next tree. "Besides, if I finish quickly, then I can rest and regain most of my magic before the fight begins."

"Do whatever you wish." Mary said before joining the Warriors in chopping up the downed trees.

Conserving magic. It wasn't something that Rin had ever really put much thought into. With her elementary level spells, she could cast them around two hundred times in a day at their normal level without exhausting her rather large magic supplies. But what about when she started to use more powerful spells, and what about those spells that she had known in her past life. They had been far more taxing on her than the ones she had learned from the Mage's Guild. Perhaps she should start trying to learn best practices and not use magic when a nonmagical solution was available. The problem was, she wasn't very good at anything besides magic, or she had never tried anything other than magic in the two weeks since she had woken up in that god forsaken tower.

The problem with that was weapons. Elementals hated the touch of nearly all kinds of metal, which was the reason why Mages would neither wield proper weapons, or wear armor. She couldn't even wear trinkets that had metal in them. The twisted stick she was given to assist in her spells would do her a fat lot of good against steel blades.

After knocking down fifty trees, Rin moved back to camp and sat down to rest. She still hadn't burned through even half of her total magic reserves, but she had still been awake for a very long time, and the darkness, along with the warmth and humidity of the early summer, Rin felt like she would just take a bit of a nap. So, laying down underneath a tree in the area that the Typhoon Rocks had claimed for themselves, Rin closed her eyes and let herself drift to sleep.

* * *

When Rin finally woke up, the sun was peaking over the horizon and shining down through the gaps in the trees, and the birds were waking up and singing their songs in a beautiful chorus of a thousand voices.

It was at times like this that Rin truly understood just how much… she hated nature. Fuck the sun and birds for waking her up. Fuck the ground for being so damn hard. Her body felt so unbearably stiff from sleeping on such a hard surface. She growled her resentment of the world as she sat up, prepared to great the day with the darkest of frowns.

A blanket, that she hadn't remembered having before, fell off of her as she got up, though she was in such a sour mood that she barely noticed it. She just started towards the sounds of a small camping fire and what had better be breakfast.

Luckily for everyone involved, it was.

"Goodmorning, Rin." Shirou said politely as he started to pour her a cup of tea he had waiting in a pot for her.

She didn't even greet him. Just grabbed the cup of tea and a plateful of omelet, made from some kind of local monster bird's eggs and cut up bits of fruit, and a chunk of bread. The omelet and tea were to Shirou's usual, unusually high standards of cooking. She honestly had no idea how he managed to make anything given the little resources he had, but everything he made was always better than most of what they could buy around the city, even though he always insisted he could do better with the right ingratiates. The bread on the other hand was barely what she would call edible, tasting like a dry sponge. More than likely part of the rations provided by the Orion Clan.

Honestly, fuck that clan. They couldn't even provide real food for a one-day excursion.

"Looks like sleeping beauty finally decided to get out of her bed of flowers." Rock said sarcastically. "Here I was thinking you were going to sleep straight through the entire raid."

"Go fuck yourself, you brainless shit." Rin snapped at the man. Rock looked taken aback, not expecting such an aggressive response from the girl.

He glanced at Shirou, looking for an explanation. "She isn't a morning person." Shirou said simply, not at all surprised by Rin's behavior. "Let the stimulants from the tea work their magic and she will be back to normal in fifteen minutes or so."

Rin gave Shirou a dirty look for disclosing that information before going back to her meal. "Either way, it was good for her to get sleep while she could. Those of us who use magic need extended mental and physical rest in order to refuel our supplies. Moyugi and I also forced ourselves to rest for at least an hour will we had the chance." Tsuga said with a small nod.

"It's also a damn good excuse for you guys to stop helping out around here." Rock scoffed.

"Well, I don't have to heal you if you really don't want me to." Tsuga said with a smile that seemed a little too genuine. Rock didn't take the bait and only rolled his eyes. "Either way, Rin expended quite a bit of her magic during the night helping to set up the logs. It shouldn't come as any surprise that she was spent."

"I wasn't spent!" Rin snapped at the Priest. "As if someone like me could run out of magic after just a few dozen spells. I could have cast a hundred more if I had wanted to."

Tsuga's eyebrows went up and he glanced from Rin to Shirou. "Was that just a boast, or is she serious?"

Shirou shrugged. "She's a genius."

"And don't forget that." Rin said, flipping back her hair which she then realized hadn't even had her fingers drawn through it as a form of brushing. Just another reason to hate mornings.

"I know a few veteran mages who would have been out like a light after casting that spell within a living plant fifty times." Tsuga mumbled, scratching his chin. "Her total magical energy must be at least twice my own."

Kuro let out a low whistle to show that he was impressed.

"Well, it isn't the size that matters, its what you do with it." Rock said, trying to pretend like it wasn't a big deal.

"Keep telling yourself that short stack." Rin said as she finished off her omelet and took a bite out of the lousy bread.

"You want to die, brat!?" Rock shouted, having to be restrained by Kajita.

"Though I suppose he has a point." Rin admitted with a sigh. "Even if I have a lot of magical energy, there will always be a finite number of spells I can cast before I am basically useless. Not to mention the time required to cast my spells. If an enemy gets too close I can only defend myself with a useless piece of wood or hope I pull a spell out of my ass before they stab me though the hea…"

A pulse of magic flicked through Rin's body, temporarily stunning her into silence. A gasp escaped her lips as the way the magic had moved through her brought along with it a sharp stinging sensation. The pain only lasted a moment and the magical energy lasted only a moment longer than that, but in that moment Rin had them a second time. The formulas. So many magical formulas. But before she could try to memorize any of them, they were gone again, along with the pulse of magic.

"That is the inherent weakness of mages." Tsuga said with a nod. "There isn't much in the way of armor or weaponry that they can use to defend themselves, due to the Elementals' hatred of metal, which is why they have to rely on other to protect them. There are a few spells that can be used to block enemy attacks, but they are costly and the amount of damage they can absorb is rather small."

Rin was hardly listening to him, she was trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. She had draw on that old knowledge again, but she didn't know how she had just done it. She tried to trace back the feeling she had in her body at the time, but she couldn't think of anything that might have been a trigger. Last time it had been in a high stress situation, while as now she had been sitting down finishing her breakfast.

"A weapon huh." Shirou said thoughtfully, his hand going down to his belt. He frowned for a second before shrugging and undoing his belt, removing the short sword he had gotten from the commander from it. Rin was surprised when he held it out to her. "Here. Take it."

"…Archer, weren't you listening. I can't use magic if I am holding metal." Rin said as she looked down at the sword. The extremely expensive sword. The one that Shirou himself didn't use in battle because he thought it would be a waste.

"This sword has an Elemental Coating. You'll still be able to use magic with it." Shirou explained, still holding the weapon out to her.

Rin hesitated before talking the sword from Shirou, holding it gingerly in her hands. She could feel the elemental energy pulsating through the blade's handle. Being able to cast magic with it? It would act as an amplifier and make her magic even more powerful.

"Giving the girl a valuable sword like that. That counts as an engagement gift, right?" Kuro said, adding his commentary over the moment.

"I hope not." Rin said with a smirk. "After all, he was given it by 'Bri-chan'." The surrounding men all made gagging sounds. "As much as I enjoy holding your sword, I don't exactly know how to use it. I can't recall ever using a sword before."

"I'll just have to teach you then." Shirou said, before scratching his head. "Though I have never taught anything before."

"Are you sure about this? I thought you consider this sword too valuable to use?" Rin questioned him.

"To valuable to use? It's a sword?" Shirou said as if genuinely confused by her statement. "The only reason I haven't used it before was because I had other alternatives at hand. Use causes wear and tear. Unless properly cared for, you can usually only get a few dozen good uses out of a sword before it either breaks or will no long hold an edge. So, if a lesser sword will do the job, why use my best one?"

"And why give your best sword to someone who doesn't know how to use it?" Rin countered.

"Because, for you, no other sword will do." Shirou said before giving her a smile. "Just be glad you are worth more to me than a sword. A sword can always be replaced. You can't be." Rin blushed a bit at his words and looked down at the sword in her hands.

"…You two sure you ain't dating?" Rock commented. Rin throw what was left of her stale bread at the man's head.

* * *

"You're moving your center of gravity too far forward. This form requires you to be more loose in your movements." Shirou said as he put a hand on Rin's shoulder, correcting her stance ever so slightly. "A forward center of gravity is good for hard blocks, but with your lighter weight, you shouldn't try to stop anything save for as a last resort. Parry or absorb the momentum whenever possible."

Shirou spent the next two hours of that morning instructing Rin on how to properly draw and wield a sword, and despite his claims as to known nothing about teacher, his vast in-depth knowledge of weapons made him a natural teacher. That, along with Rin's ability to quickly pick up concepts made it so that training proceeded quickly. In fact, the members of Typhoon Rocks were also surprised by the girl's mastery over her own body, leading them to suspect that she knew more about close-quarters combat than she was letting on, or perhaps more than she remembered.

As the Volunteer Soldiers were a military force, there was open mockery of the Rookies training before a real battle, as well as a 'tiny' Mage trying to learn to wield a sword. Most of the remarks came from the recruited teams that Orion had brought along as the Clan members were far too 'gallant' to be making such remarks, they just smirked and shook their heads at the display.

However, the more veteran members of the group weren't laughing. None of the member of Typhoon Rocks made a single condescending remark. They were all too busy watching and trying to make sense of it.

"Where the hell did this kid learn so much about swords?" Rock said around a piece of grass he had been chewing on. "He might just know more about them than I do."

"He certainly knows more than I do." Shinohara said as he approached the savage team's leader. "I was hoping you could tell me what you knew about that style he's teaching her. It isn't one that I know of."

Rock was about to mouth off to the man when he saw the young beauty standing behind him. Silvery blue hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes, she was dressed in shapely armor that showed off her figure very well. Twenty years old, she was right in the middle of Rock's strike range. Hinata was as beautiful as ever, and just her presence was enough to make Rock change his mind about decking Shinohara. At least at that very moment.

"It's a spell sword style, or a modified form of one." Rock said keeping his tone disinterested as he tried his best to look cool and casual. "You can see how she is holding her hand parallel to the earth to the side and how her steps and breaths all have a timing to them. It's to help weave a spell into her form. It's a common enough style among veteran Dread Knights, though a few of the most elite Paladins also practice it, once they start hunting things that a shield is worthless against."

"The footing is reversed." Hinata observed simply. Being a Paladin herself, she would have seen a spell sword style before.

"Right you are. The foot work is closer to that of the Thief's guild and the Dread Knights or Paladin's. At least from what I can tell, though the posture of the upper body has been changed from the standard form of a thief in order to compensate for the larger weapon and how she is holding her arm out." Rock said, giving the girl one of his most charming smiles. It wasn't all that charming, but she didn't see it anyways. She was watching Shirou and Rin, the boy performing a slow-motion attack at the girl and letting her practice redirecting its momentum to help her dodge.

"He's supposed to be a Rookie and a Hunter, isn't he? Where did he learn this mixture of Paladin and Thief fighting styles?" Shinohara said.

"Boy is just naturally talented. They both are. That's the reason why Typhoon Rocks is looking out for them after all. We watch out for our juniors, rather than making them learn everything for themselves. Even if some of our juniors don't seem to appreciate our overwhelming generosity." Rock said. He couldn't help smirking at Shinohara as he said it. Shinohara was known to follow the idea that the Rookies should learn things for themselves rather than being taught how to survive by their senors. One of the many things that he and Rock didn't see eye to eye on.

Shinohara smiled back. "Well, I for one always knew you were a good guy underneath your rough exterior." He said cheerfully. Rock's eye twitched, Shinohara knew damn well that Rock hated being called a 'good guy'. He was trying to get a reaction out of the guy that would embarrass him in front of Hinata.

He might just have gotten it, if it wasn't for one of Orion's men running up next to him to give a report. "Captain Shinohara, the Orcs have been spotted by our scouts. Their transport will be here in twenty minutes."

Shinohara nodded to the man and shouted out to get everyone's attention. The time for waiting was over. The battle was about to begin.

* * *

 **No the names aren't based on Naruto. Rock and Shinohara are both canon characters, and Hinata is just an extremely common name that I pulled from a hat. Even if the names were from Naruto, the characters really can't cameos.**

 **Same goes for Itsuki. I wasn't thinking of bleach, I just looked up a list of common Japanese names and it was number 11 or something and had a rather self-centered meaning like 'one path' or something implying that he did things his way and didn't care about others opinions.**

 **Even Sara is from that least, as it is apparently a popular name in Japan. (Should mention, Hinata was a common name under the male category list rather than female, so it seems to be gender neutral.)**

* * *

 **If everyone seems to be kind of a dick towards the rookie teams and the less fortunate in general, these are army men in a very nonstrict army. Of course they are dicks who make fun of people.**


	12. Chapter 12

They can smell our sweat, can't they?

That was the question Rin was asking herself as she saw monstrous reptilian mounts that the Orcs used to drag along their supply wagons moving through the flattened strip where the human party had set up their ambush.

Dragon Horses. That's what they had called them, but there was a big difference between just hearing the name and seeing the creatures in the flesh. More than eighteen feet in length with large jawed heads perched a good eight feet off the ground. Coal black eyes sweeping over the surroundings as they struggled against their muzzles, their forked tongues tasting the air though the slight gaps in the material.

Their bone structure seemed to be more like that of a horse than a lizard, in that their legs were straight under them rather than the more wide hip joints of a lizard. It remembered her briefly of how birds called raptors were descended from reptiles that were probably very similar to these creatures. Though the idea of comparing a chicken to these apex predators seemed laughable. One of these monsters was fast enough and strong enough to rip a fully armored knight to shreds, and the Orcs had seven of them dragging their equipment along the rough terrain, each one trained from birth to act as beasts of burden… and to hunger for human flesh.

These were to be Rin's responsibility in the fight. Her and the one other mage who had mastery of lightning type magic. Their scales were thick and hard enough to make hacking them up a challenge, even for the massive swords and strength of the Warriors. While Paladins' [Saber] blessings would allow them to cut the monster's down, it would be risky. They were also fire resistant and water tight. Lightning magic was the best option for dealing with them, and even than she was told it would probably take four or five casts of lightning to take one of them monsters down.

She had to work fast. If the Orcs released the Dragon Horse's from their harnesses and let them move about, then there would be little chance that she would be able to land a hit on them. For each one she didn't kill, they would likely kill two or even three of the raiders a piece before they could be put down.

…No pressure.

When compared to the Dragon Horses, the Orcs themselves seemed laughable. Buff as they were, they were only around human sized, with green skin, pointy ears and a pair of tusks. Each one of them grew their hair out in weird styles and dyed it bright colors, apparently as part of some kind of male dominance thing, because it takes a real man to pull off having hot pink mohawk and green skin. They were ugly and stupid looking, but not intimidating.

'Dragon Horse hides are pretty valuable as armor among Mages, Hunters and Thieves. Shit isn't light, but its lighter than metal, a lot more flexible, and don't get in the way of Elemental magic. Each corpse will probably be worth around two or even three gold a piece depending on the size and color. White ones are the most valuable, but I doubt we will be seeing any. A full-grown white male's corpse is worth forty gold right there.' Kuro had mentioned before the battle when he had heard Rin was made responsible for the Dragon Horses. 'Remember, you kill it, you keep it.'

"There is enough meat on those things to last a month." Shirou whispered to her as they watched and waited for the first trap to be stumbled into. "I wonder how you're supposed to cook it."

She had to choke down on a laugh. A monstrous creature that looked like a miniature wingless dragon was working around right in front of them, and he was thinking about eating it instead of it eating him. "I imagine it tastes like chicken." Rin said sarcastically. "Please tell me you didn't become a Hunter just so that you could eat everything."

"And what were you thinking while you were busy staring at them? What kind of boots you're going to make out of them?" Shirou teased back.

"I was thinking that the red one would make a nice top for my new outfit, and the black one could be used for the leggings." Rin said with a teasing smile of her own. "I think those shine black scales will really show off my hips." She slid a hand across the hips in question for emphasis.

Shirou blushed a bit and turned his eyes away. "Is that so. Maybe I should also be making a list of all the equipment I'd like to get out of this fight and pick my targets based on that. I could use another spare sword or two, since you seem so attached to mine."

"You're supposed to be prioritizing their archers. So, I hope your list includes a lot of arrows." Rin reminded him. The back and forth teasing helped Rin calm down. She wasn't the only one out there, and so long as she threw everything she had at those overgrown lizards, there was no way that they would get back up afterwards, and even if they could, Shirou was there. He was the one person she could always count on to help her make things right.

Their back and forth banter stopped as the front of the Orcs' column reached the pits. The first of their number stepped onto what had seemed like normal grass when his entire body fell through, falling twelve feet down onto sharpened sticks, not even having time to give a shrill cry before his lungs were punctured. It would take a few moments before the rest of the Orcs who weren't close enough to see what had happened to get the message, but before that happened, ropes were cut and down the sharp hill rolled fifty large logs. Each picking up speed as they fell down on the Orcs.

The location of the ambush had been carefully picked for the sharp ridge overlooking the strip that would allow the Orcs to avoid the most rocky areas of the forest and have the swiftest trip, but the strip was too narrow for quick maneuvering of the carts that could result in a retreat. Everything had been planned out.

Before the logs were even half way down the hill, Shirou was already standing up out of cover, bow drawn and firing off arrow after arrow at any Orc unfortunate enough to be holding any form of ranged weaponry.

Following Shirou lead, Rin got to her feet and started to cast her spells, targeting a large red Dragon Horse. One bolt of lightning, and then another. The creature was brought to its knees, though it still was alive. The Orcs were going crazy, confused by the logs, arrows and lightning strikes that had appeared out of nowhere during what had been a peaceful escort mission. They were struggling to drop their packs and get their weapons ready when the storm hit them.

A nearly deafening roar shook the battlefield as Typhoon Rocks descended on the Orcs from behind. Rock, Kuro, Tsuga, and even the normally quiet Kajita, all let out their [War Cries] all at once, and Moyugi added to it with his own [Dark Howl]. The killing intent produced by the five men's skills was so intense, that it made Rin very happy that she had recently taken care of her business and that the wet mark left by her peeing herself wouldn't be easily noticeable, and she wasn't even near them or the target of their ferocity. The memory of a black giant holding a sword made of solid rock appeared in her mind, and this was a mental image that she was very glad to have taken away from her.

"Don't stop casting." Shirou said, though his own face paled a little at the sound.

Rin nodded and returned to casting her lightning spells, though she couldn't help but to glance at the gorefest that was happening with Rock and his men.

A typhoon really was the best way to describe them. The way they just pushed straight though their enemy, cutting them down with hardly any delay at all. Orc after Orc fell to the men, most of them not even trying to fight back, but trying to run for their lives from the creatures that hungered for their blood. Even the Dragon Horse that was closest to the party completely lost its shit, thrashing about so much that they tipped the cart it was anchored to over, breaking the reign and managing to get free.

Too bad for the freed beast, it ran straight into Moyugi. Dark tendrils wrapped themselves around the Dragon Horse's front legs, causing it to trip as Moyugi brought up a sword covered in a cursed black fire and cleaved off of the monster's head.

These five people were put down in the plan as being capable of killing a hundred Orcs by themselves.

In Rin's ever so humble opinion, Shinohara clearly underestimated them.

Even Tsuga, the Priest of the group, moved about, slicing through armor and necks with the sharpened ring on the end of his metal staff. He was praying for the souls of those he had slain even as he slayed some more.

While this was going on, some of the other Volunteer Soldiers started to get their acts together and rushed down the hill, preventing the scattering Orcs from running up them. Pushed from the sides and the back, what Orcs were still running were running straight forward into the traps and falling to their deaths.

For that first minute, everything looked as though it was going perfectly, and like they would easily take their loot and go home with no real opposition at all. Shirou had long stopped firing his bow, choosing to save his last three arrows just in case, and Rin herself had managed to bring down three of the Dragon Horses. That was when one final element to the battle made itself known.

It was as the Volunteer Forces were cutting off Orcs and the front and pushing towards the back to meet the Typhoon Rocks push forward. They had just passed the first of the supply wagons and had glanced inside to make sure that there were no Orcs in their that would be attacking their backs.

The woman who had looked in gave a startled gasp and stumbled away from the wagon right before a massive black sword pushed upwards through the roof of the wagon before coming down straight on top of her, crushing her to death. Shouted of panic erupted from the humans as the thing inside of the wagon stood up, ripping through the wagon's roof as he did so.

Rin's mind went blank as she stared at the massive creature. "What the hell is that thing?" She mumbled.

"A Monster Rex." Mary said, her hands tightening on her staff. "A monster that for some reason grows to be much bigger than the normal members of its breed."

Rin almost laughed. Much bigger didn't even begin to describe it.

She had heard of the Monster Rexes, but just like with the Dragon Horses, hearing about them was one thing, seeing one was another.

Standing at over twelve feet tall, it was easily twice the size of a normal Orc in all dimensions. Its entire body was covered in a sort of black scale armor that seemed to shimmer in the afternoon sun. The armor covered absolutely everything with not even a single gap save for the ones in its visor around the monster's mouth and eyes, and small gasps around it head to allow for its long mane of bright purple hair to fall through. It would have looked silly if it wasn't so terrifying.

The giant sword, equal in size to any that the Warriors were wielding, seemed like only a long sword in the hand of the behemoth and it swung it around with ease as it hopped out of the cart it had been riding in, the clay soil cracking underneath its feet as it dismounted.

"What are we supposed to do about that?" Rin asked as the monster gave its own roar. One that somehow didn't seem as threatening as when Rock's team had done it.

"Don't worry. A Paladin will be able to cut through its armor." Mary assured her, though the girl herself still looked half panicked, almost as if she was about to freeze up.

Hinata started to approach the Monster Rex, spreading blood onto her blade in the shape of a six-pointed star. "O Light, may Lumiaris's divine protection be upon you. [Saber]!" She said, causing the blade to start to glow with bright white light.

"No!" Shirou said, shocking the two girls. "A Paladin can't do anything about that monster!" Shirou started to run down the hill towards the battlefield, ignoring Rin as she told him to stop. "Get away from it, you won't be able to cut it!" He shouted at the girl.

Hinata didn't hear him. She dodged first slash of the giant Orc and went in for an attack of her own, slashing her shining sword at the Orc's chest with a strong [Punisher].

There was the sound of shattering glass as the sword meet the metal armor, and in that instant, the glow of Lumiaris's blessing disappeared from the sword. Hinata was surprised and tried to retreat as the Orc swung at her with an open hand, but she only succeeded in putting herself in range of his sword. She lifted her shield, impowered by her god's blessings, in order to protect herself, but the moment the black sword came crashing into shield the same sound of shattering glass occurred and the blessing disappeared. Hinata's arm was broken and she let out a scream as the blow ripped the shield from her arm and sent her skidding across the ground. She had been moved outside of the monster's reach as its sword shattered the earths surface where she had been standing. But the Orc didn't seem done with her just yet, taking another step towards her downed form.

Shirou cursed and drew and arrow, boosted his bow and the arrow itself to the point where if he strengthens them any further they would have broken down under the stress, and fired the shot straight at the Orc's head. The air around him was ripped apart as the arrow flew at incredible speeds, smashing into the side of the Orc's head, the arrow shattering on impact with a loud *bang*.

The beast staggered to the side, but quickly righted himself. Shirou had known that the arrow would do no good. Not against armor like that, but he had hoped that it would have at least distracted the monster away from the helpless woman. But it seemed like the supersized Orc wouldn't be distracted from finishing the job.

Shirou couldn't fire another one of those shots immediately. It was the fatal flaw in Kuro's technique. You needed to use [Steel Guard] to reinforce the bow's strength after having pulled back the string in order to add extra strength, but once it is reinforced it takes a moment for the bow to return to normal so that you could pull the string back to its fullest again. While the bow could still be used at its normal capacity, he would need to wait for the [Steel Guard] to fully ware off before firing another one of the more extreme shots.

Shirou knew as the giant lifted up its sword that he wasn't going to make it. But as the sword fell, someone else stepped into the way. The sound of the two blades didn't sound quiet right to be steel scrapping up against steel, as Rock parried the massive monster's sword strike with his own overly large sword. The exertion of getting there in time, combined with the sheer physical strength needed to overwhelm a monster that most likely weighted ten times as much as him, left the Typhoon's leader in a pant, but even as he panted, there was a fury in his voice and eyes.

"Don't… you dare… touch her… you TUSKFACED BASTARD!" The short man roared, flipping forward the edge of his sword and swinging it up along the side of its opponent, all the way up to the giant's head, the tip of the blade just barely reaching its jaw.

The speed and strength behind the swing was only enough to knock the monster back only a few steps, even though the strike had been powerful enough to break the tip off of Rock's blade.

"Get her out of here!" Rock shouted at some nearby Warriors, who had been to shocked to move. Brought back to their senses, they rushed forward to grab onto Hinata's crumpled body and drag her away from the danger zone. Rock watched them go for a half second before gritting his teeth and turning back to Monster Rex. "I'm going to make you suffer for what you did to her."

The Orc just began to laugh. It probably didn't even know what Rock was saying, but there was no mistaking the hate in the man's voice. The other member's of Typhoon Rocks were closing in on the monster, leaving the rest of the battlefield to the other Crimson Moon members as they went after the biggest threat. They encircled him, preparing to strike.

"[Dark Grasp]." Moyugi said as he cast his demonic ritual. Black tendrils formed from the shadows around the monster, reaching up to grab onto its… *crack* There was the sound of shattering glass and the spell was canceled. "What's going on?"

"It's his weapon and armor!" Shirou said as he joined the group. "They are made from an alloy of cold iron mixed with rainbow pyroxene. It's three order of magnitude harder than steel, and rejects the blessing of the gods and interferes with the Elementals. Offensive and Defensive blessings won't help at all here."

"Are you telling me that this thing is immune to all magic!?" Rock growled. As if in response to his question, a lightning bolt came down on top of the creature's head, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. The monster didn't even flinch.

"Sort of. Yeah."

* * *

 **Enter the Berserker.**

* * *

 **For anyone who wants to know if Rock is going to get some... no. He isn't. Because nice guys finish last. In other words, Heroes never get laid.**

 **Its why he doesn't want to be seen as a heroic type. Because then girls ask stupid questions like "Do you think that just because you saved me means your entitled to sex? What kind of girl do you think I am?" Even though he never even tried to imply he was entitled to it... he just wanted to have the option open. You know, start dating, get to know each other better. But no, once you save a girl's life, all chances of a normal relationship are over.**

 **Poor poor Rock.**


	13. Chapter 13

Rock spat on the ground, tossing his broken weapon aside and retrieving another one from a nearby corpse. He swung it once to test the balance before glaring again and the dim-witted monster that had him so pissed off, and had probably cost him any chance he could have ever had with the beautiful Hinata.

Years of hunting down monsters had taught the man one thing, that the only place worse than the Friend Zone when it came to starting up a romantic relationship, was the Hero Zone. Once you save a girl's life, that was it, no dating, no getting to know each other better, it was all over. Unless you already knew the girl on a personal level.

For any strong-willed girl, which in Rock's mind were the only types worth pursuing, they all seemed to be under the impression that if you save their lives, and then try to start a relationship with them, that means you feel that you are entitled to sex because you saved their lives. He didn't want sex as payment for save their lives. He just wanted it because they were hot… and he kind of got off on being dominated. But time and time again he had been rejected by angry women who he wanted to at least share a beer with all because he had saved their lives before reaching first base. It was the entire reason he tried to avoid people thinking of him as a good guy, or a hero. Unless the relationship already existed, rescuing the dame was the kiss of death.

Nice guys finish last. Good guys never finish at all.

Now, after months of trying to get to know Hinata better and finally reach first base, Rock had just broken his number one rule, so fat chance he was ever going to get any now. And it was all this stupid looking goliath's fault.

Rock was so mad his vision was practically going red. Still, he was on the battlefield, and priories had to be set.

"Moyugi, Tsuga, Rookie. You three take care of what's left of the stragglers. Kuro, Kajita, and I will handle this worthless sack of flesh until y'all finish cleaning up." Rock spat. The Orc came at him, swinging its sword, but it had been too slow and predictable to get him.

"How are you thinking we handling this thing? Magic doesn't work and its armor is too hard to cut through without it." Kuro asked as he launched his own arrow at the thing's skull, staggering it as the arrow banged against its head with enough force to down a tree.

"Simple, if you can't cut it up or blow it up, just bury it." Rock said, gesturing towards the pitfall traps. Each one was only around twelve feet deep, meaning the Monster Rex could stand in one and have his head poking out of the top, but with all that armor he was wearing, Rock was willing to bet that he couldn't climb too well. Would serve the stupid creature right to die slowly in the bottom of the pit. They could bury him in such a way as so that only his head was above the ground and then take turns pissing on its stupid purple hair.

"That's… actually a pretty good plan." Shirou said, sounding genuinely surprised. Rock was about to snap at him when Tsuga added his own commented.

"Our glorious leader does have his moments." The Priest said with a smile.

"He might look dumb, but he hasn't survived this long on chance alone." Moyugi nodded along.

"Okay, fuck all of you!" Rock shouted at them. "Now do your damn jobs before I decide you ain't worth having around!"

"Yessir." The three said, jokingly before moving off to assist in the slaughtering of the remaining Orcs.

"Damned bastards." Rock huffed before turning his eyes back toward the giant. "Shino better be paying us extra for this."

"Well, there is probably a sizable bounty on this fucker's head." Kuro commented, as the three of them started to lure the Orc towards the holes in the ground. The big guy was surprisingly fast for someone wearing so much armor, though he was a little clumsy. Even so, his lack of actual skill in wielding a blade made him predictable and let the humans stay one step ahead of him.

"The money ain't the same if it ain't come out of that smug pricks pocket." Rock snapped, picking up a shield off the ground and chunking it at the Orc's head. It just bounced off like everything else, but it was still enough to keep the guy plenty mad.

They would keep its attention easy enough. Killing it would be the hard part.

* * *

With the majority of the typhoon members distracted, the Orcs tried to group up and push through the weakest side in an attempt to break through the encirclement. The forty or so remaining Orcs pressing against a line of seven Warriors and Paladins, quickly starting to overwhelm them, even with the Priests, Mages, and Hunters behind them offering blessings and covering fire. It would be a race for survival. If the Orcs couldn't break through before the remaining human forces descended upon them, they would die.

If the Orcs managed to escape, they could be pretty fast runners and might get away. With the fort they were supposed to be resupplying just a two-hour run away, if they got the word out about the ambush, then it would be unlikely that the Human's would be able to gather up all of the loot before they had to run from the Orcs counter attack. They were counting on the two or three extra hours it would take for the Orc encampment to get suspicious of how late their supply shipment was in order to unload and reload all the goods onto their own horse drawn carts about a half-mile away. An early alert would mean no stolen supplies and that the entire raid was a failure.

Shirou shot off his last two arrows, aiming for the less defended joints in his target's armor. The longbow that Kuro had given him was still too pumped up from Shirou's earlier overuse of [Steel Guard] for him to power it up again. Luckily he was surrounded by weapons that the dead weren't in any hurry to use themselves.

Discarding the bow and quiver, he retrieved one of each from a dead Orc soldier he himself had shot down earlier. It was a shortbow, the arrows were barbed and more heavy at the tip than what he had been using before and the shafts were a little thicker. It was a more close range weapon than the longbow, meant for getting a few shots off on a charging group before the soldier dropped it to pull out his sword.

To a normal archer, these kinds of sudden changes in equipment would be disastrous. Even if they had gone from one longbow to another it would have cause problems, as no two bows are exactly the same. Some would even say that the subtle differences from shot to shot would have an effect on one's accuracy. Pulling out an entirely different kind of weapon would make one lucky to land the first few shots as they had to adjust to the differences.

But with Shirou's supernatural knowledge of weaponry, he had adapted to the weapon instantly, changing his stance and draw to match those needed to use the shortbow. The first arrow released bore straight into its target's skull.

"Does anyone have a back up plan for if Rock's plan fails!?" Moyugi inquired as he reached the edge of the Human line and started to cut down any Orc that tried to pass around it.

"No. Do you think it will fail?" Shirou asked as he rapidly shot four more arrows, using more and more [Steel Guard] in order to improve the strength of his shots to the point where they would break through the Orcs' thin neck guards. The shortbow would reach its saturation point much quicker than the longbow had. He'd need to replace it again soon.

"I'd give it a fifty fifty chance." Moyugi admitted with a shrug. He said a short chant and scrapped his knuckled across the flat of his sword, causing a black mist to appear and rush towards a group of Orcs who had been trying to circle around him. The black mist went up their nostrals and the entire group went nuts, swinging their swords around randomly as if trying to attack an unseen foe. Moyugi just left them to accidently kill each other. "We are gambling over whether or not that monster has the upper body strength to pull himself out of a hole while wearing full body armor. While the armor will certainly inhibit its movements and weigh it down, it might still be strong enough to pull it off."

"True, fortune tends to favor those who have back up plans, but I can't think of anything that would be of use." Tsuga said, having finished off a small pod of Orcs who had managed to get by the line. He stood in prayer for their souls, making the hexagram that was the mark of the local religion before returning to the matter at hand. "Its armor was hard enough to take one of Rock's [Rage Cleavers] to the head without scratching. Perhaps if we had a high enough quality weapon we might be able to cut through it, but such weapons are too expensive for even top-class Crimson Moon members like us to get our hands on one. The Dwarves always charge a king's ransom for their best works. I doubt anyone in the frontier has one. I've never even seen them as being necessary, since you can get by on blessings and curses. But since those aren't an option, I'm afraid I'm stumped."

"How much is a king's ransom, exactly?" Shirou asked, out of curiosity.

"A dwarven masterpiece costs about five thousand gold… cheep." Moyugi grumbled. Shirou couldn't help but to let out a low whistle. That was enough money for his entire group to retire on, twice. "How about its own sword. You said they are made of the same material. Would it be capable of cutting through the armor?"

"Not a chance." Shirou said, shaking his head and firing off one final arrow. The arrow went through the last of the Orcs' heads and the monster collapsed to the ground. Having used up the shortbow, Shirou tossed it aside and searched the ground for another one. "The unusual crystal structure that gives the rainbow pyroxene its durability makes it next to impossible to shape it into a proper edge. The sword can withstand a serous beating, but don't expect it to cut anything. The worst it could do against that armor is to put scratches on both of them."

"It's magical resistance. How absolute is it?" Moyugi asked, just accepting that Shirou was an expert. "Is there a delay, or a way to overwhelm or saturation the armor with magic?"

"It counteracts the nature and structure of blessings and Elementals. No matter how much magical energy you put into it, it will just lose its shape the moment it comes in contact with that armor. Arcane magic would work, but I don't know how much help flinging magic missiles will be against armor like that." Shirou explained as the three grouped back up and looked to where Rock and the others were fighting the giant Orc. "Kobold magic was used to make the armor, so it must be able to get around the cold iron's effect. Either of you happen to know any?"

"No human does." Tsuga said with a sigh. "So we have an enemy we can't cut and that is immune to magic. So what can we do?"

"Have you tried blewing it up?" They all turned to see Rin standing behind them, her arms cross and a scowl on her face. "It my experience, it works pretty well."

"Miss Rin, as much as I approve of your enthusiasm, it is immune to all our magic." Moyugi said flashing her a nerves smile.

"We don't need to use magic on him directly." Rin said sticking her nose up in the air and taking a sniff. "I smell alcohol."

The boys all paused and sniffed the air themselves. True enough, even though they were outside, something smelled like an entire tavern out there. Following the scent, they found the wagon that the Monster Rex had come out of, and in it, instead of supplies, were six large kegs. Two of them were open and drained dry, three were still sealed, but the last one was on its side, thick golden-brown liquid was pouring out of the container and spreading over the wagons surface, soaking into the tarp that had once acted as the wagon's roof.

"Holy hell. Is… is that… the good stuff?" Moyugi whispered, wonder in his voice.

"By Lumiaris's light… that thing was drinking it by the keg?" Tsuga stammered out, sounding truly frightened. "It really is a monster. How is it even breathing?"

"Stop gawking at it and start helping me get this thing moving." Rin told them. "We need to cut it loose from the Dragon Horse corpse if we are going to get anywhere."

"Are… are we really going to use this as a weapon?" Moyugi said, too stunned to move.

"The others are not going to like this." Tsuga said, nodding in agreement before grabbing the man and dragging him into action.

Shirou just followed Rin's instruction, wondering to himself.

What was so special about the beer?

* * *

They lured the monster closer and closer to the traps, taking it in turn to perform small hit and run moves on him, though not really putting any effort behind their swings. No point in damaging their weapons if it wasn't going to have any real effect anyways. But once they had gotten within ten feet of the hole, the monster started to wise up to their tactics… sort of. It still didn't just turn around and walk away like something with real intelligence would. It just stopped charging at them as Rock stood at the edge of the pit with a smug grin on his face.

"Come on, you aren't afraid of a little hole, now are you?" Rock taunted the giant with a challenging gesture.

The monster grunted and swung at Rock, but was too far way to hit him. Even though the Orcs face was completely covered by its helmet, Rock could just image the stupid expression it must have had as it tried to figure out a way to squish the human that was being such an annoyance, without getting any closer to the hole.

"Hurry it up big boy. Make your decision. Do you want me or not?" Rock said, jumping around just outside of the monster's reach. The goliath growled at him but didn't move forward. "Well, even if you aren't going to come at me, you probably don't want to stand right there." Rock said, knowing full well that the Orc couldn't understand him. Even if he could, it would be too late.

Kajita had moved up behind the giant while he was distracted and wound up for a devastating hit. "I'm going to smack you…" The normally quiet man shouted as he let loose a [Spiral Slash] that carried behind it all his strength and the full weight of his oversized weapon. The Orc heard him and turned his head just in time to take the flat mushroom shaped top of the blade straight to his face. "…WITH MY DICK!"

The swing was so fast and so heavy, that the air around them seemed to pop. Rock jumped backwards over the hole as the behemoth was knocked straight up into the air and towards the hole, his front half sliding over it. The monster struggled to get a grip on anything to stop himself from falling in but couldn't find anything on the flat soil around him.

Rock jumped back over again, planting a foot on the giant's back before jumping off of him, pushing the creature's head down. As the creature face planted in the bottom of the hole, Rock began to laugh. "Stupid piece of shut." He said spitting down into the hole on the monster as it tried to right itself, with great difficulty.

"Damn, the bastard broke my dick." Kajita grunted as he inspected his sword. The mushroomed shape at the end of his weapon was seriously damaged.

"Don't worry. We'll make Shino to buy you a new one. You earned it." Rock said, grinning to himself.

"Ah, boss." Kuro said, pointing back to the pit they had just dropped the giant into. Rock looked back to see the massive black sword being lifted up over the top of the hole's edge, before it slammed against the side of the wall, collapsing dirt into the hole even as it widened the rim.

"Son of a…" Rock began to swear as he realized his master plan wasn't going to work. He tried to think of something else, but couldn't think of anything that would put an end to the monster before it managed to make itself a ramp to get out of the hole they had wanted to bury it in.

After five hard hits, the monster began to try to climb out of the hole, having only to deal with a steep slope rather than a straight up wall. Its upper body was over the surface and it would soon be free.

An arrow whizzed by, slamming into the monster's chestplate and knocking it backwards again, back into the hole. Rock and the others turned their heads to see Shirou discarding a bow before jumping behind a wagon and helping Moyugi and Tsuga push it. "Come help us push!" Tsuga shouted. "We are going to drop it on top of him and then set it on fire!"

A grin spread across Rock's face as he shouted at Kuro and Kajita to get off their lazy asses and help. The six men worked together, quickly pushing the wagon across the field to the hole and letting it fall down over the edge even as the monster was trying to climb back up it.

"Get clear!" Rin shouted before starting her chant. "Derem hel en van alev. [Scorch]!" She shouted, creating a wipe of fire in the air which she directed towards the wagon. While the Elemental magic-based fire couldn't touch the monster's armor, the natural fire it caused had no such problems. The carp and wood began to burn quickly, and soon the barrels in the back of the wagon exploded in a sudden burst of much more intense fire.

The explosion didn't kill the monster, the armor absorbed the force of it all. But the heat and flames still had the desired effect. The Orc screamed in pain as his flesh burned. Though the screams themselves only lasted a short while before being replaced by the strangled gasps and choking sounds of something suffocating as the fire quickly ate up all of the evaluable air. With its helmet hardly providing enough air to keep the creature alive to begin with, it seemed as though it was die from lack of oxygen long before the fire killed it. Though the party was more than willing to just wait and let the fire burn the Orc's entire body way.

"You never told me you knew anything about cooking monsters." Shirou said, giving Rin a sidelong smile.

"We are NOT eating that." Rin said giving Shirou a deadpan look.

"Man, that's one hell of a fire. What was in that cart anyways?" Rock asked as he watched the flames burned and smiled at the pathetic dying sounds of his hated enemy. However, when Moyugi and Tsuga just looked down at the ground and didn't answer him, he started to get confused. "Hey, you two alright?"

"That wagon… it had… the 'good stuff' in it." Moyugi said, his voice full of regret. Rock, Kuro and Kajita's eyes all widened so much that you could actually see Kajita's eyes behind his shades.

"No…" Kajita said, slowly shaking his head. Then the massive man dropped to his knee and started to scream it. "No! NO! Why god!? WHY!?" Tears were coming from behind his glasses as he stared down at his own hands, lamented what he had just unwittingly taken a part in.

"…We won the battle, but the sacrifice was too great." Kuro said, pulling the cap of his head and crumpling it over his heart.

"Why… why couldn't it have just been Shino!" Rock shouted, falling to his hands and knees and punching the ground.

"…Are they okay?" Shirou asked Tsuga, looking at the three men with a bit of concern.

"They will be fine." Tsuga said with a sad smile. "The Orcs have a rare and extremely strong drink that the three are quite fond of. We aren't sure what it is made of, or even what its proper name is, but they call it, the good stuff. At one point in time, the three of them got us to raid a camp of three hundred Orcs just so they could steal two barrels of the stuff. Nearly got us all killed."

"This is so stupid." Rin said with a sigh. "Come on, we need to help move all of the loot into our own wagons."

"Right." Shirou said, turned and following her back towards the rest of the Crimson Moon forces. Today had been a weird day.

"So Archer, how did you know so much about the monster's armor?" Rin asked him once they were out of ear shot.

"Ah…" The look Rin gave him at that moment made him know he wasn't going to get away without telling her. "I'll explain later… when we are in a more private place." Shirou said, glancing around at the other soldiers. "Rather keep it a secret."

"Fine then, but you are going to tell me." Rin said. It was a statement not a question. "Consider it your price to pay for running in like an idiot without my permission."

Shirou's shoulders sagged a bit. "Of course it is."

* * *

 **I considered having Shirou have a deus ex machina with Eldritch helping him to temporary regain some of his old knowledge and trace a copy of Caliburn to kill the monster with, creating another parallel to rattle Rin's members a bit, but then I decided against doing that.**

 **Why?**

 **Fuck if I remember.**

 **Maybe it seemed a little too early for him to be selling his soul for a miracle.**

* * *

 **No! I can't become the most popular story of this category. I was only supposed to threaten to do it.**


	14. Chapter 14

As it had turned out, what Orion had taken for being an especially large supply shipment, due to its larger convoy, was actually the escort for one of the Orc's top soldiers which was visiting the frontline. The massive Orc's name was some nonsense in Orcish that was too hard to pronounce for the humans, but it apparently translated into something along the lines of the 'Unstoppable Purple Pony'… No seriously.

It was an incredibly skilled and powerful warrior who had taken the lives of dozens of unfortunate souls. The team got a lucky break when they had found him so drunk that he was likely half blind rather than his normal levels of skill and dexterity.

Orion's profits were far below the one thousand gold coins they had hoped to gain from the venture, but the three hundred gold was still a sizable profit for them. Three human soldiers died in the fighting and another lost a limb. For fighting two hundred normal Orc soldiers and one Monster Rex, they got off easy. Still, some felt like the cost was enough not to celebrate and held a mourning for those who had died.

Typhoon Rocks agreed that the killing of the Unstoppable Purple Pony, no seriously, was a team effort and that the profit for it would be divided accordingly. While Tsuga and Kuro went around trying to figure out how much the bounty on the Orc's head was and how much they could pawn off his armor and weapon for, Shirou and Rin returned to the barracks. Slightly winded from a long day of gathering the loot from the battle.

It was a mixture of warm and awkward welcomes that greeted them. Many of Shirou's team gave him strange looks as he dragged behind him a wheelbarrow full of weaponry and armor that he had gotten off of the bodies of the Orcs he had personally killed. Kuro had offered to get it all exchanged for him, but Shirou had opted to keep everything that was still in usable condition.

You never know when you might need a few dozen swords. He could change his mind later and sell the entire wheelbarrow's worth for a gold or two if he really needed it. He could also give some of the armor to their Warriors if there was anything that fit.

Okay fine, Shirou was a hoarder.

Finally, after dinner had been sorted out and Megumin had been tucked into bed, Shirou and Rin found themselves alone in the kitchen, Rin more than ready for her explanation. "Alright, we are alone now. So, spill the beans, how did you know so much about the monster's weapon and armor?"

Shirou closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had a long time to think about how he was going to explain it all. "I didn't really know as much about the armor as the weapon, but since the material was the same I could fill in the gaps in my knowledge. As for how I knew so much about the weapon, I know everything about every weapon I have seen since we woke up in that cavern together two weeks ago. I'm not sure how or why it works, but every weapon I have seen, I gain an understanding of its physical make up, its history, the skills and techniques that have been used by its wielders."

Rin's face shifted though many expressions as she tried to comprehend what Shirou had just told her. Before it settled an a very serious expression. "You know… all of the techniques. From all of the Guilds."

"All the ones that stem from weapons and have been used by people who's weapons I have seen." Shirou said with a nod.

"Does that include blessings and curses that directly use weapons as a medium?" Rin asked, Shirou again nodded his affirmative. "So, we got our Paladin after all. He just can't use those skills where people can see it, else the Guilds will be all over his ass." Rin frowned at Shirou. "You did know that, right? That is why you've been keeping this a secret."

"Yes. Though it also felt natural to keep it a secret. Like I had been before we ever got to this world." Shirou explained.

"I see." Rin said, narrowing her eyes in thought. "So, it must have been a skill you had in the old world and had used so much that it became second nature to do it, and you just continued to use it even without any understanding of how it works."

"That is a good summery of it." Shirou admitted.

Rin was silent for a few seconds as she processed all this, and then silent for a few seconds longer as she considered sharing her own secret. Finally, she decided it would be for the best. Shirou was a useful and reliable person, and it was best to be open with him now to gain his trust for later.

"Since you have been open with me, I'll be open with you." Rin said, surprising Shirou a bit. "When we were running from the goblins, I used a spell that I am pretty sure was from our old world. That spell, as well as several others, came to me in a moment, and then after I used it and the danger passed, I couldn't remember any of it. I'm not entirely sure what spell I even used or what it did. Whatever it is that is blocking our memories covered it up soon after I stopped channeling my magic. I've experienced the feeling again one other time outside of combat, but again the memories of it are hazy at best."

Shirou thought about it and nodded. "Yes. When I first started looking at weapons in this world I had the feeling that I knew all of the weapons I had seen prior to coming here as well, but I couldn't remember them. Gave me a horrible headache until my mind just stopped trying to remember them." Shirou said, looking out the window up at the sky. It was nearly a new moon, so the sky was almost entirely black, with only the slightest sliver of the red glow in it. "I wonder if any of the others have hidden abilities that they had been keeping to themselves."

"I don't think so." Rin said, shaking her head. "The two of us are different from them."

It was true enough. Even more than just with unusual talents, they were different from the others. While they had been a part of the group, they could both feel that they were somehow separate from it. Megumin looked up to Shirou and Sara looked up to Rin, but they didn't really bond with any of the others, and even then, it was admiration and provided about as much sense of companionship has owning a pet. They saw as the rest of the boys and girls talk, fight and getting to know each other better, but they were separate from it all.

The strangest thing was, while they recognized this, they didn't really feel lonely. It was like this was just how things were supposed to be. They were supposed to function within the group, without really fitting in. They had felt more companionship for Rock's group of misfits after just an hour, than for their own group of Rookies who they had been with for two whole weeks.

The only exception being with each other. It was if the two of them were a completely different species to the others.

There was a knock at the door and Kuro came in, a huge grin on his face and a large bag over one shoulder. "Hey kiddos. I'm here to give you your share of the profits." Kuro said, dropping the bag down on the table. Rin choked as the thing fell over and more than a hundred golden coins came pouring out, with more still in the bag.

"W…what the hell!? Just how much was the bounty on that guy!?" Rin stammered out as she stared at the coins.

"Not nearly this much. His ass was worth a hundred gold pieces. A sizable bounty, but it was his armor that brought in the serious coin." Kuro said with a smirk. "You should have seen it when we brought the stuff to those thrice-damned dwarves. The little guys were divided between fits of orgasms over the uniqueness of it and rioting when they heard that it was Kobold made. Dwarves absolutely hate Kobolds and the idea that a Kobold made something that they couldn't. Four different companies started a bidding war over the thing. Some of them even draw axes on each other."

"Just how much did it sell for?" Rin asked, her eyes never leaving the large pill of money.

"Twelve… thousand... gold." Kuro said, emphasizing each word. "This is your cut. The original agreement was ten percent for Shirou's help, but since the little missy decided to come along, we bumped it up to fifteen. Would have made it twenty… but Rock was still mad about the beer."

Rin did a little bit of mental math and concluded that she was looking at eighteen hundred gold coins. She felt a little light headed. "That armor couldn't possible be worth that much money." Rin said, her voice a little hollow. "Are those dwarves insane?"

"Actually, it just might have been worth that much." Shirou said scratching at his chin, his eyes also boggling from the sheer amount of money. "Cold iron is an extremely rare material that can only be harvested from meteorites. As for rainbow pyroxene, it is a mineral that can't even be found in this world. The only thing stopping it from being worth even more would be the difficulties of…"

"What do you mean it can't be found in this world?" Rin said, snatching onto Shirou's words.

Shirou blinked for a moment before realizing what it was that he had said. "Rainbow pyroxene is a mineral formation that requires a certain type of mana to be present in order to form properly. It can only be found underneath the deserts of the Dusk Realm, another world that exists beside Grimgar, and is untouched by the gods. Making equipment out of it is difficult due to the fact that if you melt it down, it loses its structure and turns into just normal metals. The Kobold's binding magic is required in order to shape it without destroying the crystal structure."

"Dusk Realm? Kid, that's just a fairytale. Place doesn't really exist." Kuro said giving Shirou a questioning look.

Rin, realizing they were getting too close to talking about HOW Shirou knew all of this, quickly switched gears. "I can't believe you brought all of this money here, to the slums, in a sack. Why in the world didn't you just leave it for us at the bank?"

"Huh, if I did that, then I wouldn't have been able to see the looks on your faces!" Kuro laughed with his wide grin. "The way your eyes boggled when I tipped the bag over, that was worth far more than the money."

"No it wasn't!" Rin snapped at the man and started to rub her temple in frustration. "Why do I have to be surrounded by a bunch of weirdos?"

Kuro laughed at them for a bit longer before getting up and leaving. Shirou and Rin gathered up all of the money and hide it away, Rin swearing that the first thing she would do the next morning would be to take it all to the bank and hope that Yorozu didn't gawk at her too hard for walking around with it all.

"That's… a lot of money." Shirou said after they had finished hiding it away. "Enough for all of us to live off of for years if we use it right. Even if we did splurge on top grade equipment and skills for the whole party, we would still have money left over to take care of daily needs for a good long time."

Rin remained silent at first, but then shook her head.

"Archer, even if we did that, it wouldn't solve the real problem." Rin said quietly, surprising Shirou. "We might have enough money in order to sustain our own group forever, but what about the next group who will come out of the tower in another two weeks? What about the group that will follow them a month after that? More and more people will just keep coming, getting dragged away from their home world and forced to either fight or die in a war that should have nothing to do with them."

Shirou didn't say anything. He had only been thinking about how to keep his group alive and moving, but with just a few words, his perspective of the world had been shattered. Just like when he had heard Megumin cry, he wondered how he had never been able to notice this before.

"'How did I never see the bigger picture'?" Rin said, as if she could read the boy's mind. "Archer, there is something wrong with this world. Something is manipulating our thoughts and actions as well as our memories and trying to make us just struggle on and fight with only considers for how to survive in this world without any thought for the bigger picture. I don't have any solid proof of its existence, but I believe that whatever it is, it is responsible for our missing memories, for how we are all so focused on personal survival, the reason why so few of the older soldiers are willing to help the rookies. Think about everything that has happened, and not just our reactions, but everyone's reactions to it."

Shirou did think about it. He didn't say anything for a long time as he puzzled over every single action he had seen himself and everyone else take since the moment he had woken up. There was no solid evidence to support Rin's claims, but from everything he had seen so far, he had to admit that her conclusion seemed right. There was something seriously wrong.

"What do we do?" Shirou asked her, convinced enough that what she was saying was accurate. Rin visible breathed a sigh of relief, apparently, she had been afraid that he would not see things her way. After all, what she was most likely about to suggests would be spending the money that they could use to insure their own survival on a very different set of priorities.

"The only way this is ever going to end is if we figure out a way to send everyone who is brought here back to their own worlds. To do this, we need to set aside a large research fund. Something that we can tap into without the others knowing about it. I've already planned on checking out the Forbidden Tower in order to try to find hints about how we got here in the first place. This 'Dusk World' you mentioned could also provide us with some kind of clue." Rin said as she started to lay out her plans. "First, I am going to learn how to manifest an Elemental. Elementals are connected to the world, so they might be able to help me understand whatever happens when people are brought here from another world. In the meantime, we will need to figure out a way to get the information we need on demand, rather than waiting to stumble upon rumors. Gathering this information will take time and man power, not something that we can do alone."

"Are you talking about starting up an organization?" Shirou said, his eyes widening as he realized just how big of a task this would be.

"Yes. I know it will take a lot of money. Probably even more than we just got already. But this is the only way I see us managing to make a real and permanent difference." Rin said with a nodded.

"Well, you've given this some thought." Shirou said, scratching his own head.

"I have been thinking about it since the day we got here." Rin admitted. "I didn't think I'd be able to move forward with it for at least a year though. We just got a lucky break."

"Well then, since you already have everything planned out, does this organization of yours have a name?" Shirou asked as a joke.

He didn't expect Rin to smile and say yes. "I've thought about it and choose something ironic." Rin admitted, looking up again at the night sky and the sliver of red moon. "The volunteer army is called the Crimson Moon Reserves. I always laughed at how ironic it was, since the moon here is the symbol of how we were all left with no choose but to join. So I am picking an equally ironic name." She then turned to him with a wide smile. "Our research organization to help us all try to return to our own world will be called 'The Tower'."

* * *

That night, Shirou found himself yet again on that beach within his mind, surrounded by swords and with a wolf head nearly half as big as he was resting in his lap.

Eldritch made a soft purring sound deep in her throat as Shirou rubbed her neck absent mindedly as the waves of the sea washed up against the shore, producing neither sound nor spray. "I think this is one of my favorite places." Eldritch said in her honey rich voice.

"Thank you for the complement." Shirou said to the goddess, though he wasn't quite sure if she meant it as one.

"I've never seen a soul quite like this one before you. So vast and deviant, I can barely tell it is even human. It reminds me of the souls of Worlds, like Grimgar and Parano, more than that of a human's." Eldritch said shifting her head in order to look up at Shirou with one of her ruby eyes. "In such a short time, you've adapted so well. It makes me wonder what this soul world of yours was like before Grimgar's Counter Force suppressed your memories."

"Counter… Force." Shirou said, the word felt familiar, but he couldn't really grab hold of what its familiarity was. "Wait, you mean Rin was right about their being a force that was manipulating us?"

"Yes, there is." Eldritch said with a chuckle, pushing her head into Shirou's stomach, in a way to inform him that he was not to stop rubbing her neck. "That mate of yours is very clever. I don't think I have ever seen a human realize they were under the influence of the Counter Force so quickly."

"She isn't my mate." Shirou said with a sigh. This was a tease that Eldritch had often used on him. By her logic, he was the Alpha Male of his small pack and she was the Alpha Female. Therefore, it was only natural that they would be mated. "So what is the Counter Force, and what does it want with us?"

"*Purr* The Counter Force is the main tool of Grimgar, the divine will of this World. In times past, it felt the intrusion of the Crimson Moon and the creation of the Undead and saw them as being an existence that didn't belong in this world. So Grimgar uses the Counter Force in order to manipulate living people into fighting against the Undead." Eldritch explained as if none of it was really relevant. "A few years back, things escalated when the Crimson Moon created something in its own image and sent it to Grimgar. I believe you humans called it the Undying King."

"That would have been hundreds of years ago." Shirou pointed out to the White Goddess.

"Is that a long time for you humans? Sorry, I forget sometimes." Eldritch asked, pretending to be surprised. She enjoyed the high and mighty act. "Anyways, the Undying King started to kill the living in large numbers and converted them into the undead. In order to counter this, Grimgar started to bring humans in from another world. He would drain them of their memories and leave them with no purpose save to survive this world by killing all of Grimgar's enemies. With subtle guidance from the Counter Force, these people would often become great heroes and help shape history. Either that or they would die because they couldn't adapt quickly enough. I was never quite sure what logic the Counter Force uses for decided who it will pick to be its next prey… I mean champion. It has always seemed pretty random to me."

Shirou thought about what the Goddess said for a second before asking her a question. "You said that Grimgar started to summon people in order to fight the Undying King. But the Undying King is dead and gone. So why are people still being summoned?"

Eldritch started to chuckle. "I would think that should be obvious. Because the Undying still hasn't died. Not forever at least. And the World itself can still sense it. It won't stop until all evidence of the Crimson Moon's influence has been erased from its World."

Shirou's hand stopped and Eldritch looked up at him again. "Why are you telling me all this? I doubt that you routinely tell all of your followers everything like this."

Eldritch stood up before putting one of her giant paws on Shirou shoulder, pushing him to the ground hard as she leaned over him. Shirou was too shocked by the action to think of a response. "You're right. I don't. Because they can't do anything about their situation but struggle to survive. Best to let them live in happy ignorance and just give them whatever peace of mind I can. However, you and clever girl just might have what it takes to really figure out a way to return to that safe other world of yours." Eldritch said as she tilted her head in that one way she did when she wanted to make it look like she is smiling. "And when that day comes, and you have the chance to leave this world forever… I hope that you will stay. Not because of the Counter Force, but out of your own free will. I want you to stay here, with me, as my Guardian."

Before the boy could think how to respond to such a declaration, Eldritch bent her head down towards him… and gave him a long, wet lick, starting at his stomach and going all the way up to the top of his head.

Shirou bolted up in his top bunk, his forehead striking against the ceiling as he did so. He grunted, holding his palm against his head. He could hear Eldritch's rich laughter in his ears as he swore to himself.

He really hated when she did that.

* * *

 **Rin picks an ironic name and doesn't realize the irony that she picked a name close to the Clock Tower. DOUBLE IRONY!**


	15. Chapter 15

I've made plans to go grab some beers with Kuro and the guys.

That was going to be the excuse Shirou would give for why he always disappeared on his days off… only no one ever asked him. They never invited him to anything that they did on the days off the group decided to have at the end of each week.

Rin had argued that for every five days of work, they should have two days of rest in order to prepare for the next set of challenges. This was really just an excuse in order to give herself and Shirou time to do their real business without the inference of others.

The only one who wanted to be around Shirou during his days off was Megumin, and she thought it was really cool that he was sneaking off with Kuro to do some more high-end missions during his break. He usually took her with him to Sherry's Tavern when he went to meet up with Kuro and whoever of the Typhoon Rocks happened to be nearby, then he would leave her with 'Mimori-nee-chan' and her team.

The Tokkis, better known as the Laughing Stocks, was perhaps the most annoying group of people that Shirou had ever met in his entire life. He couldn't say for sure, due to memory issues, but it was hard to imaging how people could be more loud and in-your-face than the Tokkis. Their insistence on calling him Archy-tan really grated on his nerves. But Megumin liked them… a little too much.

She had started to adopt some of there habits, like striking strange poses out of nowhere, sewing odd patterns on her witch's hat and cloak, and wearing an eyepatch everywhere she went, insisting that there was a dark and terrible secret behind why she had it.

Still, while they were weird people, it was a fairly powerful group of veterans, and no one would consider hurting little Megumin while she was with them. Mimori in particular was the exact picture of what Rin and Shirou feared Megumin would grow up to be. The former Warrior had changed jobs to become a mage after she found out that she had a knack for the same kind of magic Megumin did, Arve type fire magic. Her magic reserves were so high that she could cast the [Blast] spell more than a dozen times in a single day, if she felt like it. She also found especially large explosion to be 'adorable'.

"Hey Kiddo, ready for a long hunt?" Kuro said with a grin, tossing Shirou a spare bow, quiver and a short sword that he had left with the older soldier so that he wouldn't be seen leaving the barrels fully armed, or have to explain why his equipment would become more and more worn down even though he was supposed to be on break. "We've been given a contract from the normal army to poison Orcs' food supplies. Not going to kill ourselves over it, but if the opportunity shows itself, we'll take it."

Unlike Rin, Shirou wasn't all too good with research. So, he spent his time preying on the local Orc encampment in order to gather more money and acting as a messenger boy between Rin and their black-market contact, Barbara, who was assisting in getting books on various magics for Rin, since the Frontier was severally lacking on the more rare volumes and asking around for them could gather attention that they didn't really want.

Barbara was a trust worthy, if perverted, individual who was the mentor of Sakanami, Typhoon Rocks' thief. She helped them get information with minimal questions asked and with only a relatively small fee.

Shirou had explained Rin's goal to Kuro soon after he convinced her that the guy was at least unlikely to squeal on them about the money. Kuro immediately jumped on board with the idea, even offering to help with financing some of it himself and got them in contact with Sakanami and Barbara.

Sakanami himself had also readily agreed to assist. Something that they were both grateful for, and… well… "Yes, while the lights of hope still grow within this day, let us continue upon our quest of penance. Lest with miss this chance to wash away the blood of our sins upon this world. With this still beating heart I believe…" Man the guy was weird. The way he talked was extremely off putting. For a thief, he sure did talk a lot about penance, sins and salvation. He was like one of those doomsayers who sometimes shout at people in the streets.

Shirou managed to deal with his crazy Priest like talk, but Rin couldn't stand the man and had actually used her magic to incase his entire head in water when he had refused to shut up. She said it was more than just the way he talked, just looking at him made her feel sick to her stomach.

Sakanami was a tall lanky individual in his mid-twenties with shallow cheeks and a million-mile stare in his black eyes. Like many of his teammates, he didn't look to have bathed in days, and his wiry black hair came down to his shoulders.

Regardless of his eccentric nature, he was a skilled fighter and could throw a knife with nearly the same level of speed and percussion that Shirou could shoot an arrow, making Shirou very glad that the man wasn't as insane as he acted.

Shirou ignored Sakanami's ramblings, preferring to check on his equipment. While a single glance told him that everything was in working order, it still felt natural to check it. Satified by the results, he gave Kuro a nodded and look to Inui, the Tikkis's Hunter. "I'll be back to pick up Megumin before sunset."

"Happy hunting to you, Archy-tan." The man replied, waving them off. Inui was a tall man with a long face. He looked to be in his early thirties, making him one of the oldest people in the Crimson Army. He wore an eyepatch over his left eye, even though Shirou knew for a fact that there was absolutely nothing wrong with his eye. The patch looked old and worn down, and Inui said that there was a history behind it that he'd rather not share.

The man was full of shit.

But he was a fully trained Warrior, Thief, and Hunter, and had taken a liking to Megumin, just like the rest of his party.

Holding in a sigh of irritation, Shirou turned back to Kuro. "Let's go."

* * *

"Ah lua de muo su vi a tu rua fa yek nie she la stoa ryu kweh wana gwa pa le tu kia fless, [Kairi]."

As Rin finished her incantation, the water in the bucket in front of her began to shift and rise up into the air as an orb. The water than preceded to shape itself into a more humanoid shape, looking like a tiny girl, no more than a foot tall.

'Joyous. Curious. Master Need Assistance?' The vague thoughts and emotions of the Elemental, which Rin had named Kairi, reached the Mage's though the bond she had created with it.

Rin answered the Elemental in kind, returned her own emotions to it, letting the Elemental know that she was glad that it had answered her calling and that it was time to continue their lessions.

'Joyous. Friendship. Growth. Kairi Happy.' The Elemental replied, its watery form throwing up arms into the air.

The lesser Elementals were not the most aware of beings. They usually simply existed, not really caring about or understanding anything around them. Mages could guide them with their magic to act as instructions, but they normally lacked the will and knowledge to do anything themselves. A normal lesser Elemental would have all the emotional range and brain power of a rock.

The spell that Rin had just used had taken the power that was the lesser Elemental and crafted it an identity. Giving it the capacity to think and feel to a certain extent. Rin herself would have to teach it how to act and preform magic using her own magical energy and understanding as a medium. It would be a draining process that would take time and energy, but it would hopefully bear fruit soon.

This elemental was one of three elementals that Rin had managed to give a conscious existence. The other two were an Earth Elemental Rin had named Terra and a Lightning Elemental she called Raiju. Though Kairi was by far her favorite, as Terra was lazy and required much more magical energy to motivate and Raiju was finicky, disappearing from sight the moment Rin's concentration lapsed for even a second. Kairi on the other hand was both easy to work with and not difficult to control.

Her choices of which elements to focus on stemming from her hope that one of them might be able to detect the changes in the World around the Tower during the night of the full moon. Which just so happened to be that night.

It had been two weeks since Rin and Shirou had returned from the raid and she had been spending all of the time that hadn't been out in the field furthering her skills in magic in preparation for trying to divine some kind of meaning for what would be happening tonight at the tower.

She had been glad when Shirou had both accepted her decision to focus on learning as much about the movement between worlds as possible and about how much it was likely going to cost. Of the one thousand eight hundred gold coins they had obtained from the raid, they only reported twenty of them to the rest of the party.

It was still enough for them to buy armor sets for each of their frontline fighters, replace Sara's glasses and have enough on the side to purchase all of their Crimson Moon Badges and have enough for food for the next six months, but it wasn't so much that they could just spend it however they wished or forget about ever going out hunting again.

Shortly after the raid, the team regained some confidence and started to willingly venture into the ruins of Damuro. However, even though they had started to go and preform real hunting, there was obvious frictions within the group.

Touma was terrified of fire magic ever since Megumin had nearby blown him to bits on accident. The fact that the little girl turned out to be overly specialized and incapable of learning any form of magic other than the Arve type fire magic, and that even the basic fireball spell was enough to make the man wince in fear, was enough to cause problems. While the others pyrophobia wasn't as great as Touma's, they still insisted that she not case any fire magic at all, leaving her with only the [Magic Missile] spell. Megumin herself was extremely unhappy at being told never to use her favorite types of spells. Sometimes she would simply get too excited and cast [Blast] anyways, requiring the group to tactically retreat again… at least until the goblins learned to just stop coming. While a poorly equip Shirou had been overwhelmed by sheer numbers of crossbowmen before, with his new Dragon Horse hide armor and four quivers full of arrows… it was something to behold. In two weeks he had killed thousands of the creatures.

Rin had the Dragon Horse hides made into armor for herself and Shirou, going through with her joke about making a red top and black bottoms for herself, using what was left of the material afterwards to equip Shirou with his own red leather armor which covered both his arms and the upper part of his back and neck. She had joked that it had been so that it would be harder to tell when he inevitably got soaked in blood, but it really did look good on him.

Things also took a downward turn when all of the boys, save for Shirou who had been cooking at the time, got caught peeking on the girls as they bathed. Aoi had stabbed Richard in the shoulder because of it and Yui refused to heal it, even at Rin's request. It wasn't until Niko left the kitchen, having managed to get an early snack out of Shirou that the man's injury was tended too, and only because Shirou said that dinner couldn't start while someone was bleeding out.

The boys were just lucky that neither Rin nor Megumin had been in the bathes at the time. Or maybe that was the only reason they were willing to risk the peek, figuring that the most dangerous characters wouldn't be involved.

As for drama among the girls themselves, a boy from another team that Yui had been having her eye on asked Yukari out, sparking problems between the two when Yukari started to date the boy. A fight between them was broken up by Shirou, who Yue was still far too afraid of. As time went on and they got more comfortable with their new lives, it looked more and more likely that Yue's fear of Shirou would someday outweigh her fear of being on her own.

And of course, above it all was the continued sense that Rin and Shirou were separate from the rest of them, and that it was their decisions and actions that ultimately ruled the others' lives. The way Shirou just watched like a hawk during their hunts and was quick to interfere the moment anything happened, left the other boys on the frontline feeling like a joke. Male psychology was starting to take its toll on them.

They were starting to act rebellious about having a female boss, though Rin still managed to get them to do when she needed them to by using logical arguments that they couldn't counter as to why doing it was in their own personal best interest. But who knows how long boys are going to continue to listen to logic.

Honestly, the only thing that stopped Rin from saying 'fuck it' and just kicking all of the trouble makers out, since the boys could probably find a way to make a functioning time by themselves, was the sneaking suspicion that it was the Counter Force that made the idea seem so appealing. The confirmation, that the Goddess Eldritch was ever so kind as to just give Shirou, that there really was an omnipresent force that was messing with her perception of reality had made the girl even more paranoid than before, and she had already been pretty paranoid. She had, after all, been paranoid enough to suspect that there was an omnipresent force that was messing with her perception of reality.

That brought Rin to her current task, teaching an Elemental a concept like Perception. Elementals didn't have eyes, ears, noses, or any other sensory organ. They could only sense the world around them through their connection to the World's magic and to their own element, and with Kairi being essentially a newborn baby, she didn't have a good understanding of concepts like spatial relations, shapes, or time. Time would have to be something that it would just have to get a feel for over time, but spatial relationships and identifying different types of objects by shape would be important stepping stone for processing information. Until Kairi could tell the difference between a human and a goblin, Rin didn't want to risk letting Kairi act for herself on the battlefield. Rin would always have to monitor and instruct her in order to make sure that Kairi didn't decide to throw icicles at one of her teammates.

Rin was sharing her own sight with her Elemental Familiar and trying to explain to it what she was seeing using her words and emotions. The Elemental didn't understand most words yet, but it did recognize its own name and simple things like 'correct' and 'wrong'.

'Shape. Shape. Different. Shapes. Touches.' Kairi expressed as Rin explained to the Water Elemental that there was a difference between a shoe and a rock beyond that they both didn't have water in them. Rin couldn't help but smile, realizing that Kairi was kind of like her own baby. Kairi was an intelligence that Rin had made just a few days ago. Her development was actually unbelievably quick if compared to the average human baby. 'Kairi Like Sight. Like Share. Kairi Share.'

Rin blinked in surprise as the Elemental shared its own senses with her as well. Seeing the world as the Elemental Saw it, a sort of void filled with magic and water, was a little jarring at first, though Rin's mind quickly adjusted to it, finding the experience as fascinating as Kairi had her own human eyes. Kairi's senses were not inhibited by walls and Rin could see all throughout the barracks, and she quickly realized that every living thing had water and at least a little magic in it. She grimaced a little deep inside when she realized that the barrack's rat problem was more extreme than she had suspected. She would have to get Shirou to sort that out.

However, it wasn't until she recognized her own existence in the Elemental's vision of the world that her eyes widened. "What in the world is that?"

* * *

 **Just because she was right that the World was out to get her, doesn't mean she wasn't paranoid.**

* * *

 **The last chapter marks the end of what I would call Act 1 of this story. Act 2 is going to be Shirou and Rin discovering more about magic, and the introduction of the canon main characters, concluding with Rin deciding that serious actions are appropriate. Act 3 will be Rin pushing to remove the more immediate threats to the city on the Frontier so that they could be more free to explore. Act 4 will be them expanding out, going to search for and explore the other worlds in order to continue their research. Act 5 would most likely be when all the big stuff starts to move about and Act 6 would be the conclusion.**

 **Hope you are in it for the long run. =] Hopefully now you will understand if I never complete the story. It's because it would be ******* long! You know the base material I am working from have been in writing for four years and still hasn't finished, right? And it is their writers actual job.**

 **I considered writing out Shirou going to Kuro and being introduced to Barbara instead of doing a time skip for it, but in the end I just skipped it in order to move along the story a little bit faster and save us another three chapters.**

 **Next chapter will have a better interaction between Shirou and one of his party members, in order to get a better view of the world from their perspective, before switching back to the actual plot. (Sorry, they are all side characters meant more to establish scope and tone rather than having any real significance and being deserving of character development. How many side characters who are name dropped in Harry Potter ever get character development?)**

* * *

 **I'm not planning on having Sakura or Illya show up, but if anyone wants to take my story and write their own using it as a starting point and add those characters themselves, feel free. Just ask if you want me to send you the source material.**


	16. Chapter 16

Kuro looked down at the bag of coins they had gotten from their latest extermination run with a mixed expression. "Fifty-one gold and fifteen silver… a good haul for one day… a ridiculously good haul, but still." The man mumbled before sighing and putting the bag away.

"It isn't enough to keep up with the spendings." Shirou said, finishing the man's thought. They exclusion was a good one. The Orcs occupied a fortress just two miles away from the city, but the fortress itself wasn't all that large. May of the Orcs lived in camps around the outside of the fortress whenever there weren't any sort of raids happening on them. This was divided into eight separate camps each housing around a hundred individuals, with still more Orcs inside the fort… or it had been eight camps. Shirou supposed there were only seven now.

It had taken all afternoon, but between Shirou, Kuro and Sakanami, they had managed to wipe out an entire camp without sounding the alarm, after which Sakanami snuck into the Fortress and poison their food stores before the three made away like thieves, taking everything that they could carry and set fire to what they couldn't. For a one-day long assault performed by a team of just three people, it was a lot of money, but it still wasn't enough.

"While normal Elemental Magic is pretty cheap, the stuff the girly keeps asking for is anything but. Celestial and Dwarven magic. Prime Arcanas. Base Runic. It's all damn rare or well-guarded shit." Kuro said as they started towards the deeper part of the city slums and towards the Thief's Guild, where they were to meet up with Barbara and receive that week's update on requested tasks… and the required payment.

"Our goal is to understand and use mysteries that extends past the boundaries between worlds. Even magics capable of detecting it are going to be rare and expensive, and also by nature 'unnatural'." Shirou said, repeating what Rin had said to him. "Elemental Magic is by its own nature bound by the normal restrictions of reality and can't preform any task that nature could not."

"Yeah yeah, I know." Kuro said, picking up in his step as he adjusted his bow. "If it was easy, then someone else would have done it already… Still, if we die trying, at least we died trying to do something worth doing."

"I'd rather just do it, rather than die trying." Shirou said, giving Kuro a smirk. "Come on, you are so old as to be thinking about rolling over, are you?"

"Lots of people won't be liking the idea of an actually volunteer 'Volunteer Army'. The locals of this world see us as a valuable resource and symbols of this and that. Nearly all the great human heroes were pulled out of that damned tower. Lots of us have also fallen into that same mindset… just look at Shinohara." Kuro said, giving Shirou a sidelong look. "You and girly were smart to count the Typhoon in, since we haven't bought into that bullshit for a long time, but I don't know what would happen if word got out about what you are trying to do."

"I could make an educated guess." Shirou admitted. "Beyond being brick walled by the government, someone would probably try to kill us. Then I would kill them, and the world would become very, very complicated."

"…Yeah, that sounds about right."

* * *

"I have two things for you today. First would be the reports on our information gathering on the subject of World Passages, the other is an old tome of old Dwarven magics." Barbara said as she sat on the edge of a table with her legs crossed in a seductive manner.

Barbara was a woman Thief who had managed to live into hear late thirties. She had retired from the soldier life early and had spent her years mentoring newcomers in the ways of the Thief and taking part in the management of a wide spread information network and a pseudo black market which could be used to buy and sell tabooed goods. Tabooed goods usually meaning items that were produced outside of the Tradesmen's Guilds.

While she was getting on in years, she honestly didn't look it. She had kept up a strict regimen for herself and her students, keeping her body in perfect shape.

Barbara was a very well-endowed woman with reddish brown hair that came down to her shoulders and brown eyes behind a fashionable pair of spectacles. While many thieves didn't wear much in terms of armor, Barbara didn't wear much in terms of clothing either. A majority of her breasts, stomach, shoulders and thighs were all exposed to whoever wished to look at them.

She had a happy smile on her face, probably because she was about to make a lot of money off of them.

"Alright, so what's the price?" Kuro said with a sigh, wanting to get it over with.

"Oh we will get to that, but first tell me where Sakanami-kun is? Wasn't he supposed to be with you?" Barbara asked, tilting her head and looking around them as if the man would just appear out of thin air if she looked hard enough.

"Sakanami ran away. Same way he always does whenever it involves you." Kuro deadpanned. Neither one of them new why, but Sakanami was absolutely terrified of his mentor. Based upon his seemingly random spluttering whenever the subject of his mentor came up, Kuro suspected that she raped him, but really didn't want to ask for confirmation. He just couldn't imagine what else 'She held me down and stripped me of all my purities. Ravaging me with brutal sin until my soul turned hard and I merely longed for release… but release never came…' could mean.

"Oh, not that isn't nice. He could have at least come to visit his Sensei. I suppose I will just have to punish him later." Barbara said with a short lick of her lips before lifting up a stack of papers and holding them out towards Shirou. "The reports. They aren't anything finalized since you said that you wanted discretion on my part and I haven't had time to check things out myself, but the sources are reliable enough."

"How much?" Kuro repeated.

"Seventy-seven silver, after my ten percent fee." Barbara said.

"Really?" Kuro said, more than a little surprised. Seventy-seven silver was a nearly eight months pay for most common jobs, but usually using an information network was hell of expensive.

"What can I say, we got lucky with the turn out. Someone else has also been asking for similar information and we managed to get by on their tailcoat." Barbara said with a shrug.

"Someone else is looking into the World Passages?" Shirou said, only slightly surprised.

The World Passages were considered to be little more than a rumor by most. They were areas within the Frontier that were supposedly connected to other worlds and could be used to travel to them. Information about them was really that hard to find, so much as it was hard to tell what was real and what was made up, same as with any rumor that spread far over many tellings.

There were several inherent problems with the usual information. If someone was to slip through into one of these other worlds, it was unlikely that they were ever going to make it out alive. Rin theorized that the reason for why all of the World Passages were so deep in enemy territory was because some of the monsters were fundamentally not native to Grimgar and that they came into this world through those World Passages. This argument was supported by historical records from the original appearance of the Undying King, which claimed that the Orcs species seemed to just appear after the Undying King showed up, with no sign of where their species had come from.

The problem was how to prove it? If a group of adventures goes out to one of these Word Passages, they will probably not come back alive, and no one would find it suspicious that a group of people disappeared in the middle of enemy territory. And if a few of them somehow did manage to comeback, the story would be so out there that no one would believe them.

The stories ranged from giants the size of mountains, cultists wielding spears made of lightning, settlements of 'friendly' undead, and even more unbelievable tales. Shirou himself would have dismissed them completely, if it wasn't for the fact that the 'Dusk Realm', a World where Divine Magic couldn't be used, was one of these rumors, and he new for a fact that it existed.

"Don't bother asking me who is looking around. They have been even more discreet than I have. All I can really tell you about them is that they are a strong group and seem to have ties to some pretty serious people, including the Elves." Barbara told them as Shirou fished out the money and made the exchanged, letting her watch him count it out.

"Alright… and how much for the tome?" Kuro asked, feeling his dread slowly raising as he had been waiting for the bad news since they entered the city from their hunt.

This wicked smile on the woman's face grew even larger. "Three hundred seventy four gold."

The two snipes could only sigh. "I'll have to get the money to you tomorrow." Shirou said reaching out for the large leather book, only for the woman to pull it back out of his reach.

"Then you'll be getting the tome tomorrow too." Barbara said a little cheekily. "It isn't that I don't trust you kid, just practicing best practices. I am a thief after all."

"Yeah, we know." Shirou and Kuro said together.

They really needed to Rin about all these expenses.

* * *

Riku stumbled back into the barracks alone, just a short while before the sun would set. He had left earlier in that afternoon with Richard and Touma and gone drinking in a small pub on the far side of town. But when the two of them started to try to drag girls into the mix and buy them drinks, Riku decided he had enough, paid for his shit and left.

He had gone out drinking to forget all his problems with the so-called fairer sex, not make more.

Their drinking expedition had been meant as a rebellion against that tyrant Rin, who always bossed them around in that level tone that one would used to talk to children. She would use logic like a whip and make then all feel and look stupid in order to get them to do what she said. So when she said that the group as whole was being paid for as far as food and housing went and that each individual should spend the money they made as best as they saw fit in order to help in the future, the three boys all went out drinking. Only Itsuki actually went back to his Guild Hall in an attempt to gain more power.

They laughed as they imagined how they were pulling a fast one on the smug girl and throwing a monkey wrench in whatever plans she had for them… only they all knew that in her eyes, they were nothing and all their antics were barely equivocal to a dog shitting on the carpet. Even when they did go out of their way to disobey her out of spite, and shit went wrong, just like she said it would, she didn't get angry at them or rub it in their faces. They were so low that they were beneath her contempt.

*sigh*

Maybe a bath would help him clear his head. Get the smell of alcohol off of him too. He hadn't drunk that much considering his size, but he wasn't exactly an experienced drinker, and in an attempt to show off he had made a bit of a mess on himself.

It wasn't until he walked into the public bathes that he recognized that someone else was already in there. "Riku, you're back already?" Shirou said, his tone pleasant enough though his face and eyes were as sharp as ever.

Riku nearly stumbled when he saw Shirou. His eyes not really prepared for what he was seeing.

Riku actually hadn't interacted with Shirou much at all. They slept in different rooms, had different duties in the field, didn't talk or hang out, or anything together. Because Shirou had always started to prepare meals whenever they returned for the day, rather than immediately trying to wash up, Riku had never even seen him in the bath. None of the guys had.

That was why looking at the man's body was such a shock. Beyond simply being very well muscled for a rookie, he had a giant scar right over his heart. "Shirou, what in the world happened to you?"

The other boy looked confused by the statement. "Huh? Nothing. Why do you ask?"

"That… that scar." Riku said pointing at it.

"What, you mean this? It's just from the cut I got from the Commander's knife on the first say. Its not that big." Shirou said looking at a thin line on his arm that showed where he had deflected a throwing knife with his own body.

"No, the one on your chest!" Riku said, half shouting with surprise.

"My chest?" Shirou looked straight down and then blinked, touching the scar over his heart. "Huh, where did that come from?" The boy sounded disinterested, as if it was just a small bruise. Then he frowned. "Considering how I seem to just be ignoring it, it must be something I got back in the old world. Funny how I could have just never noticed it at all." Then he looked back at Riku who was still staring in shock. "Sorry, does it make you uncomfortable? I'm pretty much done here already if you want me to leave."

Riku bit the inside of his lip and forcibly pulled his eyes away. "No. It's no big deal." He said as he went to strip off his clothes and wash himself off before entering the bath. Even in this world, a world with healing magic, that looked like a wound that would have killed you. They must have had something even more potent back in their home world.

It just another thing that Riku filed away in his attempt to figure out just what kind of person Shirou really was.

Everyone in the entire party had a different view of Shirou. Itsuki viewed him as a measuring stick, the crazy Dread Knight wanting to surpass him in power. Richard and Touma mostly saw him as a dangerous weirdo who still seemed to have more luck with the girls than them. Yue thought he was a monster in discuss as a human. Megumin and Niko thought he was a genuinely good person who also happened to kickass and knew how to cook.

He was an off-putting and hardly sociable individual. He rarely ever emoted at all and his voice was usually pretty constant. He was almost always working, wither out in the field, cooking, exercising, or doing repairs. He didn't act without careful thought save for when immediate action was demanded. He was such a hard guy to read, but there was one thing for certain, he had been different from the rest of them from the day they had all woken up.

It made him scary. While the rest of them still squirmed a bit as they drove their swords into goblin flesh, Shirou never so much as flinched. He didn't gag, no matter how much blood splashed all over him. At times, he seemed more like a machine than a man.

"You know, I don't think we've ever really talked." Riku said as he settled himself down in the water.

"Is there something you need to talk about?" Shirou asked.

"Well… no. I meant like small talk. You know. Get to know each other better." Riku clarified for the other boy.

"Ah. Small talk." Shirou said, the corning of his lips twitching downwards for a brief apologetic look. "I'm not good with small talk."

"How can you not be good with small talk? It's easy. Here, how about you tell me about how Hunter's training was like?" Riku said, trying his hardest to get an actual conversation going.

"All I really did was go camping for a week and hunt things. Not really much to talk about." Shirou admitted with a small shrug. "How about you? What was becoming a Warrior like?"

"Well, the Knight I was squired under worked me pretty hard from dawn till dusk. He had me lifting and moving things about all the time as he explained what each piece of equipment was and what it was for. He explained to me the Warrior's code, and of course taught me sword play." Riku said, deciding that maybe if he opened up then Shirou would too. "He told me that I was a natural talent. I progressed in training a lot faster than the others and had time to even pick up another skill after I was done with the basics. Got to admit, at the time I felt like pretty hot shit."

"You are a bit more skilled than the others." Shirou agreed, though it only made Riku bitter, because he knew damn while that Rin and Shirou himself weren't counting among 'the others'. He had seen the two training, and Rin's swordsmanship was just as good as his own. Maybe even better, and she rarely trained with it, compared to the amount of time she spent on her magic.

In a close-quarters fight with the girl with no magic, he might be able to beat her. A close-quarters fight with magic allowed, he wouldn't stand a chance.

"To tell you the truth, when we all started this party, I thought that you would become our leader, and that I would have been a sort of second in command." Riku said, checking to see how the other boy would react. He didn't. "You were the strongest of us and were the quickest to action. Rin might have been good at talking, but you were the one who earned the Commander of the whole damn Reserves respect with just a single fight. I thought that you would lead us. Instead the girl just kept talking, and we all just kept doing what she said. I really hate it. I hate how she is always talking down to us and telling us what to do."

"What, like she's some kind of leader." Shirou said, his voice approaching something joking, but having a bit of an edge to it. Riku was too wrapped up in himself to notice.

"Yeah, like a leader. Like she is above us and we are beneath her notices. She treats us all like damn children." Riku said angrily before the steam started to leave him. "At least, all of us but you. You're the only one who she sees as an equal. She acts differently towards you than the rest of us. She actually listens to you and gets angry with you. She sees you as more than just a warm body. I'm pretty sure I could run around the barracks butt naked and she wouldn't bat an eye. She's a cold bitch and doesn't give a damn about the rest of us. She doesn't even see us as human."

"You're drunk." Shirou said, getting up out of the water and going to dry himself off. "You're drunk and your wrong about her. She may separate herself from the rest of you, but that doesn't mean she doesn't care. She cares far more than you will ever understand."

Riku couldn't respond. A sort of silent [War Cry] was radiating from Shirou, informing the boy that he was on thin ice, and that if he knew what was good for him, he'd keep his damn mouth shut. The boy just watched as Shirou walked away from him, showing that there was a matching scar on his back to go with the one on the front.

Shirou was in such a rush to leave, that he only pulled on his pants and left the baths with his shirt off. It was only by chance that he walked straight out of the bath house and right into Rin.

"Archer, I need you to run a few errands for me in town before tonight and before the market closes. I don't have time to explain right now, but you are just going to have to trust me that this is really impor…" Rin started as she walked towards Shirou but stopped as soon as she got close. Her mouth halted mid-sentence and she just stared at Shirou's chest, or more precisely, the scar on it.

She just stood there with a lost expression on her face, long enough to make it awkward for Shirou. "Rin… you okay?" Shirou said, jarring the girl out of whatever kind of trance she had been in.

Shocked out of her brain-dead state, Rin blushed and began to shout at Shirou. "P…put your shirt on, you idiot!" She shouted, turning away from Shirou so that she couldn't see his half naked form.

Shirou laughed a bit to himself at how funny her reaction was, but ultimately, he did put his top back on. "Alright, I'm dressed. Now what about these errands."

Rin held a piece of paper back towards him, not looking at him as she spoke. "I'm going to need all the materials on this list by tonight."

Shirou winced as he took the sheet of paper, wondering what the damage was, but was surprised when what she was asking for weren't things that would be hard for him to get and would be cheap, if not free. Some paint, iron, copper and lead shavings, a bucket of fresh blood that has mostly not started to clot yet… what in the world was she planning on doing? The only thing on the list that made him grown was the very last entry. "Crystal coins? Why couldn't you have told me you needed them this morning. We already pawned off all the ones we got today from the Orcs."

Crystal coins were the currency that the Orcs used in place of copper, silver and gold. A large crystal coin was worth around the same as five silver at the human market.

"I didn't know that I was going to be needing them this morning." Rin snapped at him. "I've been working all day after I found… I don't have time to explain, just get too it, alright! Just gather all those things and get them to the tower. I'll explain everything when you get there."

Shirou sighed as he pocketed the list. "Well, I suppose we needed fresh blood anyways."

* * *

 **I asked for a bucket of fresh blood and you brought me an empty bucket and an entire live Orc? Works.**


	17. Slice of Orc and AN

Buugug was sitting around in his guard post with his three blood brothers as the sun slowly set in the distance, each of them feeling relief at how narrowly they had escaped death. They had been so close to having been resigned to the south-eastern camp, one more day and they would have packed their things and been in the guard station just in time for whatever happened to hit them as well.

It had been a hell of a day for the Orcs at Dead Head. First the entire south-eastern camp die without so much as a word. Then the men inside the fortress itself started dropping dead left and right. Their eyes just rolling back in their heads. It was scary shit. Some Orcs started talking about bad spirits from the older raids still lingering on the fort and that they were angry. Seventeen more people were executed for trying to desert. By the time they men in charged figured out that the food stores had been poisoned, over six hundred move had dead. This morning, there had been almost two thousand strong Orcs holding down the fortress, now there were only around twelve hundred.

On the bright side, fifty percent increased pay for the rest of the month. And whoever did the poisoning wasn't so heartless as to poison the grog, though one of the kegs of the Generals best stuff seemed to have gone missing. The lose of that one keg sent the General into such a rage that he killed one of his own honor guard. The boys all chuckled a bit about it. Saying what they wouldn't give to have some of the best stuff. They had ever so much as tasted it in their whole lives, but they had all heard of it.

None of them had ever wanted to join up with the army and travel all the way out to the Frontier, so close to those crazy, pink-skinned Tarks, but Orcs like them who had born with nothing would do just about anything for money. They just had to survive long enough to make it to their retirement and get the hell out, and with this latest increase in pay, they were just three months away from retiring to a nice spot in the mountains where they could start of their dream of becoming a bunch of moonlighting pig farms.

"Well boys, after tonight, there be plenty room inside the fortress walls. No more camping up for us. And when the new blood finally comes around, we will have already risen up in the world. No more risking our necks on patrol duties. Am I right." Epkagut said, holding up his mug, a smile on his tusked face. He was always one to look on the bright side of things and try to cheer the rest of them up. They laughed along as Epkagut stood up above them.

Buugug always looked up to Epkagut. Buugug himself was smaller than his blood brothers and even after he had trained as a Ranger, he still knew that he wasn't as strong as the rest of them, but Epkagut always stood up for him.

"To the fortunes of war, and to the survival of our little brotherho…" Epkagut's words ended as an arrow sank into his throat.

Buugug's world slowed down as he stared, uncomprehendingly as Epkagut's body slowly sagged before falling to the ground, his finally grin slowly sliding off of his face. Umug and Xuk both dropped dead after him, each with an arrow that Buugug hadn't even seen buried in their back, right through the spine.

Crying out the names of his fallen brothers, Buugug stood up and turned towards the shadowed treeline, knocking over his chair as he did so. With the light of the setting sun at the creatures back, Buugug could just barely make out a red haired Tark, staring down at him with a bow in one hand. The Tark was dressed in the red skin of a Dragon Horse and was carrying three bows, four quivers, and six different blades of varying sizes and makes.

Buugug had heard of this Tark. He had become something of a rumor in the last two weeks. They called him the Crimson Death, and everywhere he went, blood flowed as red as his hair. Groups of dozens of strong Orcs would be slaughtered by him and those he fought with. Only a few had ever lived to tell of it. Most of them Rattails who had witnessed the slaughter of their parties from the shadows, too scared to even breath.

In that instead, Buugug was sure that he was dead. The bowman was skilled and wouldn't miss, and even if Buugug tried to draw his own bow, he would never make it in time.

The Ranger reached for his belt to pull up his war horn, but an arrow flew past his hip, tearing the horn away and punching a hole in it. Fear gripped Buugug as the Tark jumped down from his perch and started running straight at him.

Buugug tried to take in a deep breath, prepared to scream for all he was worth, but a rock sailed through the air and smashed into his mouth, breaking his teeth and turning his scream into a series of pitiful cries. The red-haired Tark was on him, pinning him to the ground. A piece of cloth was shoved into the Orcs mouth, gagging him, making sure that he wouldn't call out for help.

Buugug was surprised, frightened and confused. But one thing was clear to him, he was being taken alive for some unknown purpose.

This was the last thing he was able to consider before he received a hard blow to the side of the head, and everything went black.

* * *

 **Poor poor Buugug. And they were just three months away from retirement.**

* * *

 **A little short, because I didn't feel like having it in the actual chapter, since the chapter is probably going to be a bit on the wordy side.**

 **A common theme in Grimgar is the main characters wondering what they themselves must look like to the monsters they kill, and openly admitting to themselves that they are basically mugging people, killing them to steal their stuff because they need to in order to stay alive themselves.**

 **Shirou doesn't really see things that way... or should I say, he hasn't really thought about any kind of complexity about killing the enemies of humanity. Doesn't see it as any different than hunting a boar. Just because it is alive, doesn't mean that its life is sacred.**

* * *

 **Also, I suppose I'm being a bit misleading. Haruhiro and company won't be showing up until after a short time skip of two more months.**

 **Rin is going to be setting up some formula craft around the tower and will be observing it for a few more weeks. So no, she isn't trying to Summon a hero. Though she might address the existence of them.**

 **Yes Kairi is going to be a recurring character who is slowly going to learn more words and actions. Rin keeping her around simply because of the usefulness of having magical sight, as well as Kairi becoming fully capable of operating independently on the battlefield.**

 **Someone compared Elemental Magic to Marble Phantasms, which is sort of kind of true. The problem is that the Elementals can only control their single element. Elemental Magic that the mages use is basically only calling on and instructing the Elementals, and not directly doing magic themselves.**

 **The only thing they use their magic for is calling on and instructing the Elementals, so the cost just increases based on the strength of the needed Elemental and the complexity of the instructions. The Elemental does most of the heavy lifting. Which is why people who wouldn't be fit to be magus can still cast powerful spells.**

 **Someone also asked if I would do something from Sara, Megumin and Niko's points of view. Maybe later I might find a reason to add some in. Though it probably won't be until after Haruhiro's group shows up.**


	18. Chapter 17

Rin left for the Tower right after talking to Shirou, bringing a backpack full of scribbled papers with her.

She got funny looks at the gate to the city, a lone mage leaving the city at such hours, but it wasn't difficult to get the gates to let her by. Shirou had already came through and they all knew that she was in his party. He also had quite the reputation among them, earned from carrying around enough weaponry for four people by himself. She told them that she wanted to test her Familiar Elemental's usefulness as a nighttime scout. Which wasn't entirely untrue. While she could handle three goblins by herself fairly easily now, she would rather not get into any trouble that night.

The sensory information she got from Kairi was very useful, but at the same time it was jarring. It followed its own rules so questions of depth and direction were sometimes hard to make out, and she hadn't yet figured out how to tell the difference between one living thing and another while using it.

In the end, she did bump into one sleeping goblin she had thought was just a dense bush. She instructed Kairi in how to use [Freezing Blood] and told the little Elemental where to fire. The Goblin woke up to having half its body encased in ice, and Rin finished the job with an [Earth Spike] through the head. It was good training for the Water Elemental, but Rin had to be careful just how much magic she used, because tonight she was probably going to need a lot of it.

Once she reached the Tower, she moved around behind it, away from the only exit and summoned Terra. It took nearly half an hour just to get the Elementals attention, then it took another half hour to explain to it how to use [Casting Earth] in order to make a flat surface. Even then, she had to kick it a few more times so that it would keep working. In the end, she got to have her ten-foot radius of perfectly flattened and hard ground without having to expend much of her own Magic but dealing with Terra had given her a headache.

With her job done and the only thing left to do was to wait for Shirou, Rin continue to teach Kairi new words and concepts as well as practicing with her how to tell distance. She got Kairi to throw water balls and try to hit small targets. It was enjoyable, watching the little Elemental playing with water, getting closer to the targets and feeling great joy or further away and having a small temper tantrum.

To most outsiders, it wouldn't seem like the little Elemental had any emotions at all. It didn't react the same way humans did. If Rin wanted Kairi to jump for joy, she would first have to teach Kairi the actions, probably by example, and then explain that she should do that action whenever she was feeling the emotion of joy.

Even so, Rin would say that Kairi was the most emotional being that she had ever met. With every moment that they were bonded, she could feel Kairi's even emotion flowing into her. It made her rather giddy, but it also made her school her own emotions, not wanting to taint the Water Elemental's purity. It was why she tried her hardest not to think about what she had seen with Shirou. Because it left her feeling confused and upset.

That scar. Something about that scar had entered into her mind and been rejected, just like when she had heard the word Archer. But just like with Archer, there was a physical medium within this world that made it difficult for the Counter Force to prevent her from thinking about it. With the idea attached to something in this world, the idea gained a meaning. It was just not necessarily the same meaning. Thus giving her both a sense of satisfaction at slipping something by the Counter Force, and made her frustrated to no end because she still couldn't do anything with it.

Scar.

What about the idea of a scar had the Counter Force been trying to erase from Rin's conscious mind.

She recognized Shirou's presence in the magical spectrum long before he reached her. His body had twenty-seven of those odd magical pathways she had noticed in many of the Crimson Moon members. However, she was confused as to why there was another living thing around the size of a man with him. It wasn't until he pushed himself through the bushes with a wheelbarrow full of the things she had asked for that she realized why there was something else alive.

"You brought an entire live Orc with you?" Rin asked, raising an eyebrow. The Orc let out a series of whimpers from its broken jaw. Though its jaw wasn't the only thing broken. It seemed that Shirou broken both of its arms and legs as well in order to insure the creature didn't try anything. "When I said we needed blood, I thought you would hunt a rabbit or something."

"I was going to be killing it anyways in order to get your crystal coins. As for why it is alive, I'm not too sure about how long it takes for blood to start clot after the heart stops." Shirou said with a shrug.

"Fair enough. Just try not to make a mess. Random blood splashes could ruin everything I'm planning on doing here tonight." Rin said before going to the wheelbarrow and starting to pull out the things she would need first.

"Don't worry. Shouldn't be too much different then bleeding a deer." Shirou replied, grabbing the Orc and hosting it out of the barrow, causing it to give a scream of pain. Shirou took it over to a tree where he hung it upside-down with some rope, put a tin bucket under its head and then slit its throat, finally silencing it.

"Just for the record, we are not eating that."

* * *

As it turned out, she had only needed around a quarter pint of blood where as the Orc had around two whole galleons in it.

She mixed it into a larger bucket along with measured quantities of the other ingredients as Shirou watched on. "So… what exactly are we doing?"

"I'm making a base which I can used to make a magic circle at that interact with the mana in the air. Its similar to the magic circles I make with my Elemental Magic, except that were the magical lines I make fade quickly, this paint base will last a few hours at the very least." Rin started to explain. "The coins are going to be a power source. I'm going to charge them with my own magic and then the circles I draw with use that power, so I don't have to concentrate on the amount of energy I am giving it all night. I can also use the crystals in order to store the information we gather during the night."

"Oh, I see." Shirou said, nodding his head. It did make a bit more sense, though he had no idea were the list of ingredients came from.

"No, you don't. Not yet, but I am about to show you." Rin said as she rolled up her left sleeve and held her arm over the bucket. "Kairi, I need you to activate it again."

The water elemental flouted over to Rin and placed a hand on top of Rin's arm. Shirou blinked in surprise as blue lines appeared all over Rin's arm. He felt like it was familiar but couldn't place it.

Rin said a few short words and sparks came from her hand, hitting the mixture inside of the bucket. The red and white of the blood and paint turned to a very bright shade of white as all of the bits of metal dissolved inside of them.

"Okay. So what was that?" Shirou asked, trying not to show just how shocked he really was.

"That was basic low-level alchemy. I dissolved all of the bonds holding the various ingredients together and mixed them into a more uniform solution." Rin said. All of those words felt like they should have been familiar to Shirou… but they weren't. "I don't blame you for not remembering any of it. I only know it because of this." Rin said as she held up her arm, the blue lines slowly fading away.

"And what is that?" Shirou asked, feeling like that was going to become his most used phrase tonight. Rin took out some brushes of various sizes and papers covered in notes, as well as lighting a torch to see by. Preparations complete, she got down on her hands and knees on the large flat surface and starting to draw out a Magic Circle.

"I honestly don't know. It is some kind of magical tattoo that is used to store magic energy and information. It isn't natural occurring, it's like someone grafted it into my body and connected it to my mind and soul. Unfortunately, information about itself isn't inside of this… thing." Rin admitted as she stared at her own arm. "All I know is that it contains a vast amount of information about magical theory, and formulas. So much that it would take me six straight months of writing just to write it all down. The problem is, as soon as I am no longer supplying it with magic, it cuts out and the Counter Force erases all of the information. This… Magic Tattoo, contains information about magic from our home world. The system of magic inside it is completely different than the stuff they used at the Mage's Guild."

"And you've just had this magical tattoo this entire time?" Shirou said.

"I didn't even know it was there until Kairi showed it to me. It can be activated by channeling magic into it through naturally occurring channels in my body, but I don't remember how to activate those channels. I have instructions on how to open them inside of the Magic Tattoo, but it takes time to learn. Right now, I'm having Kairi force the paths open whenever I need to access the information, but doing so is draining on her, so I need to learn to do it on my own if I want to have more ready access." Rin told Shirou as she worked. "It also gave me a chance to test a theory of mine. By writing down the information I learned from the tattoo, I can created an anchor for the information in this world, allowing me to relearn it, without having the Counter Force taking it away from me every time. I've been working all day, trying to sort through the information and copy down the most important things I could find. Which is when I found this particular Magic Circle."

"You're going to make me ask what it does, aren't you?" Shirou said quirking an eyebrow.

"It wouldn't be nearly as fun if you didn't." Rin admitted with a smile. "This Magic Circle will detect interactions between Parallel worlds. Apparently, whoever put this tattoo on me made sure it was full of information about Parallel world theory."

"That is… convenient." Shirou said more than a little surprised. No wonder Rin had been in such a rush earlier. She needed to have the circle set up before any sort of event happened that they would need to capture.

"Sadly, I can't open any sort of gateways myself, nor can I see what is happening in the world on the other side. I can only detect the connections and gain information about the relative distance in seventh dimensional space."

"Seventh dimension?" Shirou parroted, not sure he had heard her right.

Rin sighed. "Archer, it would take months to explain it all. Literally, months. I don't even understand most of it without having the Magic Tattoo activated." She said before returning to her work. "If you want I brought the notes on everything I've managed to copy down. They are in my backpack. Just read them quietly. If I make a single mistake I have to start all over."

Shirou nodded silently as went to her pack, pulling out a stack of around two hundred sheets of paper, each one with Rin's small script on it and a few hand drawn diagrams of magic circles. She really had been busy that day. And this was just from a few hours of working on it. If she wasn't exaggerating the quantity of information she had, then it was likely to be more than all the books the local Mage's Guild had put together.

Shirou tried to read it, but since they weren't in any particular order, he couldn't make heads or tails of most of the stuff. Some of it triggered that odd feeling that he should have known it, but didn't, but that was a very small amount. The only two things that got a good reaction from him were the mentions of [Structural Analysis], a basic spell that sort of kind of sounded like what he did with weapons, only with far less depth, and one other ritual based spell.

"Summon Servant." Shirou whispered to himself, tasting the words even as the back of his mind did cartwheels. Every word on the page seemed familiar but new at the same time. The pseudo gods empowered by Human belief, the crystallized legends that made up their weapons, the draining of energy by the Leyline by this Holy Grail thing that acted as the full source for the summoning, the command seals, the classes.

Caster, Rider, Berserker, Assassin, Lancer… Archer, and Saber.

Unlike all the other items in the stack of papers, this one seemed to have nothing to do with traveling between dimensions or basic magical theory. Rin must have picked it because it had felt like it had great meaning to her too.

"I didn't really understand that ritual to much." Rin said. "I copied it down because something about it seemed familiar to something in this world. Seven Servants and Seven Guilds. The Seven Guilds were all set up in honor of Heroes who took part in the fight against Undying. I was going to look into it later. Thought it might mean something."

It was an excuse, and a bad one. She was just trying to pretend that she didn't feel a strong attachment to the words. But Shirou could tell. After all, she did refuse to call him anything but Archer.

"I guess even if it does, it wouldn't get us any closer to our goal, so there is no point in pursuing it." Rin said with a small shrug as she got up and moved away from the now finished magic circle. It was all extremely detailed. Shirou was personally shocked that she could set something like this up without making a single mistake.

Year of practice were years of practice, even if you didn't remember them.

After completing the circle, she went to work on the crystals, calling on Kairi again to activate her Magic Tattoo. Shirou didn't know what she was doing, but the crystal coins glowed from within as their structure and shapes were changed ever so slightly.

But what she said about pursuing lines of research jogged Shirou's memory a bit. "I forgot, I received Barbara's report on the World Passages. We've got a solid hit on the location of one of them. The entrance to the Dusk Realm is located inside of the Wonder Hole."

"That close?" Rin said, surprised. The Wonder Hole was barely more than a two day's trip away on foot.

"Most people don't bother with the place, since the constant infighting between the Demi-human factions keeps the population down there. You'd have to actually go into the Wonder Hole in order to fine the passage, and once you go in, you aren't likely to be coming back out. Even if you do return to Grimgar, you don't necessarily return to the Wonder Hole." Shirou explained. "Barbara has also found out about a second group of people who are trying to research the World Passages in secret, though she hasn't figured out who they are."

"Really? Well, if they are just searching out of curiosity, then we won't need to care. If they come looking for us because we are looking into it… we will cross that bridge when we get there." Rin said a small frown. "As for our own actions, I don't think we are ready for an expedition into another world just yet. We still have plenty of things we can do researching around here. We can give the others in our party some time to grow up a little."

"Yeah, some of them really do need to grow up." Shirou mumbled, remembering his conversation with the half-drunk Riku. He hated to admit it, but his and Rin's presence had a negative effect on the team. Most of them were unmotivated to continue training, the only exceptions being Itsuki, Sara and Megumin, though Sara was more trying to make up for lost time when she was fighting nearly blind.

While they were getting stronger, it was at a very slow pace. None of them had reached the level where they could take on a single Orc. Most of them couldn't take on a goblin one on one. Itsuki was ready to move on to Kobolds, and so was Megumin if she didn't get too excited and blow all her magic at once, but the rest of them had a long way to go.

"Done. Thank you very much Kairi, you were a big help." She said with a smile, petting the Water Elemental on the head, causing ripples to form on its surface. "You can rest now. You've earned it."

The water dissolved and splashed against the ground outside of the magic circle.

Rin then moved back into the magic circle and put the coins in their proper spots. Then, adding a bit of her own magic power to the circle, she activated it. The circle began to glow as Mana from the air was drain into it. "Now all there is to do is… wait." Rin said with a tired yawn.

Shirou smiled as she rubbed at her eyes. "Take a nap. I'll keep an eye on things." Shirou said, pulling out a bed roll from the wheelbarrow. He had been expecting that it might be a night outside.

"Thanks." Rin said as she took the bed roll and promptly went to sleep.

* * *

 **Most likely going to have a small time skip, followed by a larger one, then introducing Yume, and then through her the rest of the normal cast. So it will likely be another 5 or so chapters before I get there. So anyone who thought that act 2 would be around the same length as act 1... no.**


	19. Chapter 18

Sara woke up along with the first chirps of the morning song birds, without even the slightest hint of a sunrise in the windows. But even in those morning hours, she could still see as well as if it had been bright outside. Part of being a Paladin was that the light was always within your eyes, so once she put on her new glasses, she could see everything around her just fine.

Pushing herself up out of her bottom bunk and being careful not to hit her head on the bed above her again, she got herself out of bed. Looking around the room she saw what she saw every morning, Rin and Megumin asleep in their beds of stray and furs, and Shirou already gone.

Well, that was alright, so long as Rin was still safe in bed. Ten days ago, Sara had a heart attack when both her leader and Shirou had not returned one night without telling anyone and both showed up in the barracks late in the morning. She had been so sure that Shirou had… taken her that night. She understood that Rin trusted Shirou for some reason, but Sara just didn't. It wasn't because he was scary… alright it wasn't just because he was scary. It was because he acted differently towards Rin than he did the rest of them. From the vary first day, she was the only one he took noticeable interest it.

He might have put up with Megumin and been like an older brother to her, but it was only with Rin that he had that occasional grin and sneaky word. She didn't want him to try to task advantage of her and get her pr…pregnant. The entire reason why Sara had agreed to room with him in the first place was so that she could protect her friend from his male hormones… not that she really had a clue how to do that. Her worry only increased as the two of them spent more and more time together and had secret meetings with each other.

On an intelligent level, Sara knew that Rin could take care of herself, far better than Sara could even. She might have even wanted to be in a relationship the red-haired Hunter. Maybe all that defending nonsense that the Paladin's recited day in and day out had gotten to her, but she didn't want anything to happen to her only real friend.

Neither the other boys or girls took any interest in Sara. Megumin was nice to her, but that was only because of how cold most of the others were to the little girl. As a Paladin, Sara did her duties and strived to improve herself, but as a person she was just too quiet. She didn't socialize with anyone and spent most of her time either training or just sitting quietly thinking to herself.

She had felt flattered when Rin had approached her with the money before going off on the raid and told her that she wanted her to do her best to look out for the group. She was so happy when Rin had helped her get new glasses so that she could remain a part of the group, even though the glasses cost more than all the armor fittings the team had to do put together. Rin had looked out for her, even though she didn't need to.

Sara looked up to Rin, metaphorically speaking. She was smart, and strong, and beautiful, more so than any of the other girls in their group. Sara knew for a fact that she was quickly becoming renown as a Mage and that multiple older parties had approached her in attempts to recruit her, but she didn't go with them. She stayed behind in order to tend to their larger and weaker group. She turned down rank and security in order to help them. She spent endless hours each night going over spells and tomes trying to improve herself.

She was a true role-model, and Sara would trust her no matter what.

Sara performed a light morning exercise. Or she would call it that. Mostly she just stretched and rubbed out her already sore muscles in preparation for what would already be a long day of work. No need to push herself in the morning when life was going to be pushing her all day. She did however go through a few shadow boxing-like routines for her shield parry practice, without the shield in hand.

Shirou was in the same place he was in every morning, the kitchen. No one else had cooked a single thing in the entire time they had been there. Someone had once suggested they do it on rotation instead of making Shirou do it all himself, but then a strange atmosphere had filled the room and the motion was dropped, leaving the boy to cook all their meals; breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

By the time breakfast was finished, everyone was awake and moving to the kitchen. Most of the group merely slouched in their chairs, still not fully awake. Niko was the only one who seemed alert and that was only because food was being put out on the table. Niko was a worry in the field as she tended to be a little scatterbrained and didn't pay attention to what she was supposed to be doing, though she was quick enough to follow instructions when given, but once you brought food out, you had her undivided attention.

"Good morning." Sara said as she took her place at the table.

"'Morning." Rin answered, not sounding fully awake yet. Sara chalked it up to all the late nights she spent working on her magic. She really did need to rest more, but even on her days off she still worked endlessly. It showed in the sheer number of spells she had managed to learn, and in the Elemental Familiar that she had started to bring out with her on their hunts. She was an absolutely amazing Mage.

"So, are we going to be going to the Damuro Ruins?" Sara asked, filling up her plate with cooked meat and veggies. She honestly didn't know what they were, nor did she really care. If there was one thing about Shirou that could be trusted, it was his cooking. She just learned to stop asking what it was after having been told for one meal that she was eating a Dragon Horse. She could be eating Goblin for all she knew, so she really didn't want to know.

"Yes, I think that would be for the best." Rin said as she took a long draft of her tea.

"Damuro, again. When are we going to move on the real monsters instead of just killing goblins every day?" Itsuki complained.

"When every frontline fighter in this party can beat a goblin in one on one combat and hold there own in two on one or more." Rin said. She didn't mention any names but some of the boy's scowled at her. In truth, Sara found handling more than one goblin by herself difficult. She knew that the goblins weren't very fast or skilled, but they were still enough to give her trouble. She wouldn't mind having more time to grow before fighting the faster and stronger enemies. "Our ranged supports also need to be able to provide assistance against multiple enemies and for multiple fights. Megumin and Yukari still has some work to go on the [Magic Barrage] spell we made."

"I know, I know." Megumin pouted at the mention of the spell.

That was another thing that had separated Rin from all the other Mages. After only one month, she was already creating her own spells, and since these spells weren't strictly speaking part of the Mage's Guild, there were no rules against her sharing them. She had modified the beginner level spell [Magic Missile] Into a more versatile version of the spell which could hit multiple targets and did more damage, which she called [Magic Barrage]. There was also [Magic Cannon] which spun the energy around a single point, condensing it into a much stronger blast that could actually kill an enemy rather than just staggering it. And since it was all elementless Arcane magic, even the over specialized Megumin could learn it.

"Oh come on, I can take care of two goblins by myself no problem." Itsuki growled, crossing his arms.

"Yes, but not everyone can. And we don't move forward until everyone is ready." Rin said.

"With a party our size we should be able to handle anything the other areas got." Riku huffed. "Besides, if things go wrong Shirou can always…"

"Shirou and I might not always be around." Rin said sharply, cutting the boy off. The man looked shocked at the suggestion. "For one reason or another, Shirou and I might go off and have to leave the party behind, like we did before with the raid on the Orc supplies. Or the entire party might end up running into an elite monster that would require Shirou's full attention, leaving the rest of us on our own. Such monsters do exist. For that reason, you should all be ready to handle yourselves. Don't rush ahead when we don't need to. We have enough money for now. Just focus on getting strong enough to be ready to handle yourselves when the time comes, because even when we are gone, this team needs to continue to function."

Everyone at the table was quiet, save for Shirou who was still humming along to the sound of cooking meat as he prepared all of their lunches. Sara couldn't imagine it. Not having Rin there to guide them. Not having Shirou around for when things turn to hell. She was so shocked, that she almost didn't hear Rin's next words.

"To that end, I think we need to have a second in command of the group to make the strategies for when I'm gone. For today, Sara will be your team leader."

It took a few seconds for that declaration to sink in and a look of panic spread across Sara's face. Several of the others gave the quiet Paladin looks of undiscussed indignation. To day was going to be a long day.

"Anyone need second?" Shirou asked.

"Yes please." Sara whispered softly.

* * *

"Alright, nine goblins. We can handle that." Sara said, swallowing a little and she crouched down with stick in hand drawing a basic outline of the building they were about to try to ambush. Nine goblins had been spotted inside, and the group had decided that this would be their next target.

This was the third one of the day, but Sara was still not used to it. Not used to everyone's eyes being on her. Rin and Shirou were standing outside of the group, quietly watching.

She marked points on her little map for people to position themselves in. "Megumin and Yukari will initiate the attack drawing the frontline goblins forward. Aoi will then take the chance to take out the crossbowman from behind while the enemy fighters are distracted with ours." Sara said then gulped a little. "Th…that's the plan. Any questions."

"This is stupid. It's just nine goblins." Itsuki grumbled as he adjusted his helmet on his bold head. Sara shrank a bit at the comment. She looked to Rin for help, but the girl only gave her a look of encouragement.

There were no questions and those participating in the fight started to move out.

"Shirou, be ready to provide support." Rin said once the others were out of earshot. "Don't save them immediately, if they get hurt, it might help to humble them a bit. We can always have their injures healed. Just don't let them die."

Shirou looked confused. "That plan should have been good enough for nine goblins." Shirou commented.

"It is, but they aren't going to be dealing with just nine goblins. Kairi's magic sight shows me another group underground, most likely a cellar. Once the fighting starts they will have another fifteen goblins on their hands." Rin explained.

"…Why are Mages not considered a possible scouting class?" Shirou said, feeling like his usefulness as a Hunter had taken a hit. Well, at least he still could identify herbs for his cooking.

"It normally takes around a year to make a proper contract with an Elemental Familiar. Same for why Dread Knights aren't considered scouts." Rin said with a small shrug.

"But of course, you are a genius who managed to create three in just a week." Shirou said rolling his eyes, though his voice became more serious as he asked his next question. "Speaking of your magical talents, any luck with the information you got from the tower?"

Rin nodded. "I've deciphered it to the best of my abilities. Unfortunately, this World and our old one doesn't seem to be ideally parallel with the distance between them remaining constant, they just never intersect. I'll need more data in order to establish a pattern. Ten total sets would be best, though hopefully they don't require us to wait for the full moon. I'd settle for five on the full moon and five off if possible. I did confirm that it is only one other world that is being tapped into though. It isn't much, but it's a start."

"Isn't much she says." Shirou scoffed. "Before we didn't even know what the hell we were looking for. We were just stumbling about in the dark hoping to find a light switch."

"Light switch?" Rin said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you even remember what that is?"

"No. Do you?" Shirou asked her, she shook her head.

"Four more months. After that we will need to start looking around for a way to string together a gateway." Rin said. "We will have to leave the city behind, and I'd rather not take the others with us on our suicidal quest." They heard the crashes that would indicate that the ambush had begun. "Well, want to see how well they will do without us?"

"My heart is filled with dread at the thought." Shirou said but followed Rin along.

* * *

In the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as they had expected. Sure, the gobs came out of the basement right as Aoi was going for her flanking attack and the Thief ended up surrounded. Sure, in an attempt to save her with a series of fireballs, Megumin set the building on fire. Sure, Itsuki bit off more than he could chew and tried to take on four goblins at once by himself, landing himself stabbed in multiple nonvital places. Sure, Touma pissed himself about all of the fire and just stood there like an idiot as the goblins attacked him. But it still went better than Rin and Shirou had expected it.

Shirou and Rin quickly took control of the situation, killed all the remaining goblins before lethal blows could be dished out, Rin and Kairi squelched the fire, and the healer got to work patching up their teammates. Now Shirou was looking through the wreckage as Rin played coach.

"What the hell!? How were we supposed to know that there were more goblins in the basement!?" Itsuki shouted, angry at no one in particular.

"The plan was useless. I can't believe you choose her as leader." Riku commented, throwing a glare at Sara, who flinched back.

"The plan was fine. You used the information you had to work with to make the best plan possible, but no plan survives first contact with the enemy." Rin said calmly.

"Then what is the point of a plan in the first place!?" Itsuki demanded, though Rin ignored him.

"If you believe that you can do better, then tomorrow you will have your chance to prove it." Rin said, looking over at Riku who only grumbled in response.

Shirou mostly ignored the talk. Listening to it was only depressing.

He moved around the ruins of the once human building that the goblins had taken over and stripped of everything, just like the rest of the city. Goblins didn't have any sort of craftsmen. They scavenged for just about everything, and what they couldn't scavenge, they traded for with the other monster races. This was less out of a lack of intelligence needed to perform tasks like smithing or sewing, and more of a cultural deal. The goblins looked down on people who preformed such tasks. Even being homeless and starving was seen as more honorable than being a worker. Only slaves performed these tasks. However, this did mean that some things that were purely work related and difficult to move had been left behind.

Shirou stopped in his tracks when he saw a medium sized anvil sitting out in front of the building. He walked over to it and switching on the single magic channel that, with Rin's instruction and Kairi's help, he had managed to get some control over in the last ten days. The act stung a bit, but once done he performed one of the two spells he had managed to learn from the pages and pages of spells that Rin had started to copy down, the [Structural Analysis] spell.

He had figured out that it really was the same… thing… he had been doing with swords all along, save for that with blades and other instruments of war, he had never needed to touch them, and the cost of the spell was so small, that he could do it without even meaning to. For other types of objects, it took a bit more effort. Rin had said some things about personal Elements and Origins effecting ones ability to use this style of magic, but though the words sounded familiar, Shirou didn't really understand any of it.

The anvil was wrought iron in make with a good chromium steel alloy face. While it had rust a little and been worn down in places, it was still solid enough for moderate use.

Shirou glanced over at Rin to make sure she was still with the others. He knew she was going to laugh at him for this. She already teased him about how he hoarded half of the weapons and armor he came across. The barracks shed had a stock pile that covered every inch of the walls, tables and chairs.

The problem was that most of the armor that he took was all sized for Orcs who had rather odd shaped heads and shoulders when compared to humans. While forging a set of armor from scratch would take weeks, he could resize pieces in just an hour or two, saving them the hassle of having to deal with the Blacksmith's Guild, who always over charged on their resizing jobs.

He could also perform his own maintenance on his weapons. He had been breaking more and more of them lately. Only the black kobold made blade he had taken from the Goblin Prince's corpse still retained its strength and edge, despite having been made of nothing but wrought iron. This was mostly due to the kobold's magic inside of it, which Shirou had been preserving with his own magical energy. Say what you want about the kobolds, they know how to make a good sword.

Taking a moment to cast [Reinforcement] on his arms, legs and back, he lifted up the two-hundred-pound anvil, pulling it out of the stone slab it had been sealed in. Hearing the sound of the stone cracking, Rin turned around to see Shirou balancing the massive piece of solid metal on one of his shoulders.

"What?" Shirou said innocently, trying to shrug while still holding the anvil up on his shoulder.

She couldn't help herself, she just started laughing at him.


	20. Chapter 19

They just don't understand the true beauty and power of fire.

It always seemed that every time Megumin used her magic, all of the older kids would get angry with her. They didn't seem to care that her fireballs had taken down five goblins and saved Aoi's life in that last fight because they were all to busy crying about how the building was on fire. Who cares if the building is on fire? Just let it burn. If she had just used her [Blast] magic to begin with then she could have killed all of the nine goblins on the main floor and buried the ones in the basement, no problem.

Her Onii-chan never complained whenever she used her special magic, and Rin-sama recognized its power. Rin-sama had been so enticed by it that she learned the [Blast] spell herself, and while her [Blast] spells weren't as large and bright as the ones that Megumin and Mimori-nee-chan made, they had an elegance to them all the same. A sort of controlled swirling in the center of the flames that was really pretty.

Sometimes, Megumin thought that everything would be better if it was just her, her Onii-chan and Rin-sama… Sara-nee-chan could come too, since she wasn't mean.

Megumin supposed they would need a healer for when things got hairy, but surely Rin-sama could become a Priest easily. She already knew so much magic from the Mage's Guild, that there probably wasn't much reason in her staying there anyways. Not to mention that she could make her own spells, spells that were better than the crummy ones that the Mage's Guild taught.

…Megumin supposed that she could have become a Priest herself, since she already knew all the best fire spells that the Mage's Guild had to offer. But the Mage's outfit looked so cute on her. She couldn't give that up. Rin didn't even wear her witch's hat.

Onii-chan, Rin-sama, Sara-nee-chan, and Megumin, with Kairi-tan as their team mascot. It would be the best team ever.

Megumin knew that she wasn't on her Onii-chan and Rin-sama's level yet. She was probably better than most of the older kids in the party and was WAY better than Yukari when it came to magic, with the older girl having only managed to learn two of the weaker wind spells which managed to be even less effective than even the [Magic Missile], only useful for batting away arrows, but there was a long way to go before she was as powerful a Mage as Rin-sama.

Rin-sama said that it was because Megumin was still a growing girl and that her reserves and power would grow with time, and that some day she'd be as powerful as Mimori-nee-chan. Megumin sure hoped so. She also hoped that she would develop like Mimori-nee-chan in other ways. Mimori-nee-chan's really was really pretty with large, full breasts.

Maybe she should start trying to learn how to use a sword. Rin and Mimori both used them, even though they were Mages. She had seen her Onii-chan instructing Rin on how to wield one properly and it had always looked sort of like they were dancing together as he slowly showed her the steps.

Her Onii-chan was really good with all kinds of weapons. Even Kuro-senpai says so. He was insanely skilled and strong for a Rookie, and that was why Kuro-senpai always teams up with him on their days off, when her Onii-chan would fight all the bad guys in secret.

Megumin could only marvel at his strength as her Onii-chan walked back with them towards the city, an anvil hosted up on his shoulder, only barely slowing the party down. "Onii-chan, that looks really heavy."

"It's pretty heavy." He admitted with a small chuckle.

"Onii-chan, how much does it weigh?" She asked him.

"Well, this is a rather small anvil, so around three times as much as you do." He told her.

"Three times as much!" Megumin shouted in surprise. Yes she was young, but she was a healthy weight for her age.

"That's right, and the ones that the blacksmiths in town use are twice as heavy as this one here." He said, shifting the large lump of metal around on his shoulder.

"How do they ever get them into the shop if they are so heavy?" Megumin asked. "Could you lift one of those ones up?"

"I don't think so. I think three and a half of you would be about my limit right now, but I'm sure that there are probably people in town who are stronger than I am. Maybe someday I'll be strong enough to carry six of you myself." He told her.

She didn't think that there was anyone stronger than he was, but she liked the idea that he would get even stronger still.

The half-smile slipped off of her Onii-chan's face and he started to sniff the air. "Rin, I smell healing magic!" He called out the Rin-sama.

Another cool thing about Onii-chan, he could smell magic. Megumin wasn't sure if it was some special ability that some Hunters gained from their Goddess, but she wished she could do it. It would be another way for her to appreciate fire magic, by smelling its potency.

Rin-sama stopped and glanced to Kairi-tan who was flying through the air nearby. "Kairi says that there are three humans nearby, and five goblins close to them." Rin-sama said.

Megumin jumped as the anvil hit the ground with a loud thud and her Onii-chan started running full speed into the forest towards whoever it was fighting out there, only Itsuki bothered to run after him. The rest took their time moving in that direction.

If it was only five goblins, then it would all be over before they caught up.

* * *

"O Light, may Lumiaris's divine protection be upon you, [Cure]." Ayako chanted, feeling the drain on herself as the soft light appeared around her hand and begin to close up the arrow wound in Ippei. How many times had she just used that spell since she had rested? Five? Six? More than she ever had in practice. Her vision was starting to blur. She couldn't keep this up.

Ayako, Naonobu and Ippei hadn't been the front runners of their generation. They had been what was left when everyone else had already made their groups. Ayako was a small and meek girl, Naonobu was too fat and his didn't present himself with confidence, and Ippei had a very distracting nervous twitch. With no other choice, the three of them came together and formed a group: Ayako became the party's Priest while Naonobu and Ippei both became Warriors. They thought it was a smart idea, two frontline fighters and the Priest to make sure that the injuries didn't get out of hand.

Little did they realize that without range support of some kind, them taking damage in each fight was almost inevitable. Healing was exhausting and left her tired after just three casts, meaning Ayako couldn't heal endlessly. All this combined with the fact that they didn't have any kind of scout, things weren't looking good for them.

It was desperation that had driven them to trying to fight even two goblins at once.

They had been sleeping in the streets ever since their training with the Guilds ended and every night they were scared, not of monsters, but of other people. During the first night, Naonobu had been mugged and had his money taken by older soldiers, crippling their small party even further. Sometimes they wondered if they should sleep outside the city walls. That maybe that was safer somehow.

The goblins they had managed to handle on their own barely provided enough for their meals. The housing that the group had found cost fifty coppers a night per person. How can anyone afford to pay so much? They would have been bankrupt by it within the week.

When they saw two goblins sitting around a cooking pot with their backs turned, they had believed that they had gotten a stroke of luck. A target that they could get the jump on, and a free meal afterwards. It wasn't until they had started the fight and three other goblins showed up that they had realized their mistake.

Naonobu gave a short cry and fell to the ground as one of the goblin's got him in the side. His chainmail stopped the blade from cutting him, but the strike still knocked him off his feet and now two goblins were both about to stab at him before he could get up while the other three were moving around to get at Ayako and Ippei. Ayako didn't even have the energy to scream, not that there would have been any point in doing so. Her eyes were tearing up as Ippei pushed himself up, trying to go on through the pain, refusing to just roll over and die.

But before the goblins could bring down their weapons, two short swords came hurtling through the air and lodged themselves inside of the goblins' bodies, throwing them backwards to the ground. A figure dressed in red and with red hair burst through the trees behind them, brandishing two more swords and before they knew it, they he had already cut down two of the remaining three goblins.

Suddenly finding himself in a bad position, the final goblin started to stagger backwards, preparing to run. However, a second man ran into the little clearing, this one dressed in iron armor. He saw the goblin and charged it screaming. "[Juke Stab]!" The thrusting attack was quick, and he impaled the goblin on the end of his long sword before it had a chance to run. "Tsh, how dull. It didn't put up any fight at all." The man said with distaste. "Oh well. A vice is a vice." He then bent down over the slain goblin and started to hack off its ear.

The red-haired man just cleaned and sheathed the blades in his hands before going to retrieve the two that had been thrown. This person was covered from head to toe in weaponry. A sword hung from each shoulder along with two quivers full of arrows and a couple of bows. He had three more swords attached to his waist on his right and more than a few throwing knives strapped to his arms and thighs.

"Niko, Yui, check them for injuries." A girl's voice said. Ayako looked around to see still more people coming out from the forest. Two of them, girls dressed in light leather armor and holding the staffs of Priest, came forward to look at her comrades. "Are you three all right?"

The girl who had spoken was wearing the same kind of scaled leather as the red-haired man, with a red top and black leggings. Her black hair was tied up into twintails with black ribbons and a one hand sword hung from her hip. Ayako swore that her mind was playing tricks on her, because she thought she saw a blue fairy-like creature hovering behind the girl's shoulder and shimmering in the light.

"We're… alr… al… alright." Ippei said, twitching a little as he stared in wonder.

"You three are from the new group that came out of the tower ten days ago, correct? I don't recall seeing you around the barracks. Where have you been sleeping?" The girl asked them. She seemed a little forward in the question, but given the condition their party was in, Ayako suspected that she could have just guessed the answer.

"We've… we've been sleeping on the streets." Ayako admitted. "All the housing was too expensive. We can't afford a room for the night."

"I see. No one told you that Crimson Moon Trainees can get a room at the barracks for ten copper a night, four people to a room." The girl told them. Ayako's eyes widened. She really hadn't heard about this. She heard the sound of steam and turned her head around to see the red-haired man kicking over the goblin's pot of food.

"Hey, why did you do that!?" Naonobu shouted in surprise.

"Any Hunter could tell you that goblins tend to eat mushrooms in their stew that are poisonous to humans. If you had eaten this, you would have been throwing up all night." The man told them. Ayako's party's faces drained.

"Gather what you want from these goblins, you need the money more than we do. We were just heading back to town ourselves. We can show you the barracks and provide you something to eat, so long as Archer doesn't mind cooking for three more." The girl said, looking to the red-haired man.

"I can do that. Just let me go grab my anvil." The man said before walking back into the forest.

"I am starting to worry about his tendency to hoard metal objects." The girl said with a sigh, then smiles at the newest Rookies. "I'm Rin, by the way. Can you all stand or do you need some help getting back to town?"

* * *

 **First and foremost, I managed to find a hobo who wanted to be my editor. So thanks to aRabidHobo for taking that job. I'll be updating the previous chapters as he helps me iron out the problems.**

 **Today also marks the one month anniversary of when this story started... wow I need to find something better to do in my free time.**

* * *

 **I've decided to go ahead and do the bits for the perceptions of Sara, Megumin and Niko, with Niko's being the start of next chapter, while everyone is around the dinner table.**

 **No these new people aren't going to join the party, they are just going to be a new group that Rin and Shirou help get on their feet, and a reminder of the situation. That being that the weak are tossed aside by the strong.**


	21. Chapter 20

There was something about a hot meal after a long day's work that warmed the soul.

While breakfast was the most important meal of the day, dinner was by far the most satisfying. You've already taken care of all the days worries and the only thing left to do is stuff yourself and relax in front of the setting sun, basking in the warm feeling of a full belly.

Today had been a tough one. With Rin and Shirou taking a back seat, Niko had to heal a lot more injuries than usual. While on a normal day she would only need to cast one or two [Cures] on small wounds that could have probably just been ignored or given a good piece of spit, on this occasion she had to use five [Cure] spells after the fight, two of the longer ranged [Heal] spells in order to assist in mid combat, as well as providing Aoi with a [Protection] blessing before the battle started. It was a work out, and she was looking forward to replenishing her energy reserves with food and rest.

Luckily, Shirou was more than willing to provide with a large spread of dishes made from all the different things that he gathered in the woods. Niko didn't know what half the stuff was, but she didn't care, it tasted great, and even with the newcomers around, there was still enough for everyone.

Niko would be willing to admit that she found Shirou a little scary at first, but then she realized that he was like a really big guard dog. He might be scary at first, and bite if you try to take his food, but as long as you respect each other's boundaries, there won't be a problem. Besides, no one who cooked the way he does could be a bad person.

Everything had been set up in a buffet style on the counter with everyone told to just get what they wanted, so Niko stacked her plate high with baked beans, fresh flat bread, and a roast made from the last of the Dragon Horse meat that had been seasoned with wild herbs. It was a pity it was all gone now. The taste of it was hard to describe, too dark to be like chicken but not like beef or pork either. It was good all the same, even if Shirou insisted that it could have used some salt.

"So, it's just the three of you working together?" Rin asked the new guests after they had a little time to eat. They must have been nearly as hungry as Niko herself, considering how they went at the food.

"Y… yes, that's right." The small girl said. Ayako was her name. She was small and thin but didn't have a young face. If it wasn't for her long hair and slight curve, she might have been mistaken for a little boy. Though she was shy, she seemed to be the one to speak for the group, since out of the three she was the last socially awkward. It was the blind leading the blind. She was too shy to even look at anyone.

"Hm, it's hard to have a balanced team with so few people." Rin said thoughtfully. "Some form of ranged support is important to controlling fights, and a scout helps prevent you from stumbling into something that is over your head. Without either of them, you are going to have trouble."

"We've noticed." The plump boy, Naonobu, mumbled around the fork he had resting in his mouth. "Bri said that groups were usually three to five people, so we thought we would be alright."

"Yeah, I suggest you never believe another word that man tells you." Rin said with a sigh. "Five people is what I would call the bare minimum a group can function with."

"We were all that was left once all the best people were picked." Naonobu admitted. "Ippei and I have been struggling through each fight, and Ayako has been exhausting herself trying to keep up with the amount of healing that we need."

"Your best bet would be to look for a free agent who would be willing to join your party. And if that doesn't work, you'll just have to survive long enough to be able to pick up some new recruits the next time the tower opens up in another eighteen days. Though you would need to wait for the newest rookies to be done with their basic training too, so that would be twenty-five days." Rin recommends to them.

"I'm not so sure that we can last twenty-five more days. We only have enough money for about three more days of food." Ayako said miserably. "We've already started skipping meals to stretch it out as long as we can."

Niko suppressed a shudder at the thought of having to miss meals. She remembered that first week when things were looking a little rough for their party. Even then, they had some extra money lying around and Shirou hunting wild animals to help ease the expenses, and then Rin and Shirou had brought back all that money front the bounty on the head of that one Orc with the funny name. After that, money hadn't been too much of a concern.

"We can help support you when it comes to food." Shirou said, his words were kind but his voice was still rather flat. "It wouldn't increase our own costs too much to support you for a while."

"You want to just support them?" Touma said, looking at Shirou with shock.

"Why not? It isn't wrong to help people and we have the money to put up three more mouths for a few days." Shirou said. "How many times did Kuro-senpai help us out during that first week?"

Niko remembered that. Kuro-senpai had been really kind to them the first week. He bought them all lunch when they lost theirs to the horde of goblins and invited Shirou and Rin along for a big mission to help get control of the money situation.

"We would have gotten back on our feet, even without the raid." Riku insisted.

"But we wouldn't be in nearly as good of a position as we are now." Rin said with a sharp nod. "Shirou is right, there is no harm in helping them, and then they in turn can help the people left behind in the next group."

Riku glared a little at being contradicted by Rin. Niko noticed the problems with team chemistry, but she didn't really understand it. Wasn't the entire reason why they had joined the Crimson Moon Reserves in the first place for food money? Why was there so much tension when there was so much food? She didn't understand what the appeal was in fighting stronger monsters when they could just as easily make a living killing goblins. Maybe once they had hunted all of them then there would be a reason to move on, but something made Niko doubt they would ever manage to do that. Not a single goblin they had ever killed had been female, since all of the baby makers were held up in the less ruined part of the city with the goblins' higher class, and the monsters breed like rabbits. The only real cap on their population was the amount of food readily available to them, since they didn't mind living in their own poop. A good reason to never go to the Goblin capital. Eew.

"The real question is, what are you going to do in the meantime? Continuing as you are is dangerous, but it would be a waste of time to just sit on your hands and wait till next month." Rin asked the trio.

The three exchanged looks. "I'm not sure what we are going to do." Ayako admitted weakly.

"We could mitigate the danger a bit if we got them some new equipment. With better covering armor and sharper weapons, they could get through more of their fights without injury and save the girl's magical energy." Shirou suggested.

"So now you want to give them armor?" Touma said, his eye widening. "Feeding them I can understand, but armor is expensive. Even just getting our stuff resized cost more than a gold for each of us."

"Not necessary." Shirou said calmly. "I didn't carry that anvil for four miles for no reason. I can perform the changes to the armor sets I've been hoarding myself."

"You can forge armor?" Megumin asked Shirou, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Yes and no. I know how to forge armor, but to do so would take a real furnace and some good iron, and it would take about a week just to make one set. But I can do refittings and small repairs using just that anvil I brought back and the fire pit outside." Shirou explained.

"The Blacksmith's Guild will not be happy about this." Rin said with a sigh. "How long would it take you to adjust two full armor sets?"

Shirou looked at the two boys, sizing them up. "I could probably finish the helmets, gauntlets and tassets by tomorrow if I pulled an all-nighter, since the chainmail is functional enough for the main body at the moment. Greaves, bevors and breastplates would take another night or two." Shirou finally said.

"Onii-chan, can I help?" Megumin asked.

"Sure. You can help by tending to the fire while I shape the individual pieces." Shirou told the girl. Touma flinched at the mention of fire. "Though you will have to go to sleep eventual. Growing children need their rest."

"Okay!" Megumin shouted happily. That girl really did love fire.

"Well, the armor would certainly help lessen the danger, but it would still be pretty dangerous." Rin admitted.

"I've got a suggestion." Itsuki said, drawing attention. "You were talking before 'bout how you didn't want to bring people who couldn't handle themselves to fight the bigger monsters. So how about we drop the dead weight onto these three while the rest of us move on with our lives?"

Almost everyone scowled at the bald boy, but Rin seemed to think about his suggestion. "As poorly worded as his suggestion is, it does have a little bit of merit. We did pick out positions within the party based on the possibility of splitting off into separate groups later on. It would give some of us some more practice without people like Itsuki around who just want to hog the whole battle to themselves and cause trouble."

"Hey!" The boy shouted indignantly.

"We can all rest on it tonight. If anyone feels like assisting Ayako's party for a few days, then they can do so, otherwise we can figure out some sort of rotation. For now, Shirou will fix up the armor and the rest of us will get some rest. You three look dead tired." Rin said glancing to the newest rookies.

"W…we… we are." Ippei said nervously. "A…are you really… really going to help us?"

"Yes. I think we are." Rin said and they all started to clean up the table. Shirou went with Megumin to gather wood and select which of his stockpiled pieces of armor he was going to modify.

Niko just went to her favorite spot, a little area on the top of a hill with a bridge and a tiny spring. Cats from around the area tended to gather there, and Niko enjoyed listening to them meowing as she watched the sunset.

She wondered about what Rin had said about volunteers for helping the newer party out. While she didn't think she would mind it so much, she still preferred to remain with Shirou's group. Better odds of getting good food that way.

* * *

It was hard to keep track of time whenever the sun was gone. Shirou had been working for hours, tirelessly pounding the armor into the correct shape. Knowledge of thousands of blacksmiths performing the same task tens of thousands of times granted him the skill he needed to get the job done. The five-pound one handed battle hammer he had taken from an orc's corpse last week served as a forge hammer, though the more rounded surface made it less than ideal for the job.

He had finished both helms first, as head wounds were the most dangerous and hardest to heal. After that he did the gauntlets, which would protect the arms while the Warriors were reaching out with their attacks. He was just starting the tassets, the metal plates which protected the fighter's thighs, when Rin came out of the barracks to check on him and take Megumin back to bed. The little girl had fallen asleep in front of the pit fire that Shirou was using to heat the metal and make it malleable.

He had to be careful not to overdo it. Forged metals were often given finishes that would help to harden them but would also become brittle if heated too hot and cooled again. One mistake and the armor would have to be repaired, instead of just refitted. Luckily, Shirou didn't make mistakes when it came to steel.

His back and arms hurt from carrying the anvil. Reinforcement itself caused lingering pain, even though he had only used it sparingly to help pick up the anvil, relying mostly on his own muscles and on physics for the carrying of the extra two hundred pounds. He would be hating himself tomorrow, if tomorrow hadn't already come without him noticing, but right now he had a job to do.

"You really do know what you are doing, don't you." Rin commented as she saw him working away at the sheets of metal.

"There are only two things in this world that I know for certain. My name, and steel." Shirou joked as he returned one tasset to the fire and started on the other one. "Why are you still up? Were you working on more research?"

"Yes and no. I was looking through the runic alphabet of this world and comparing it to the old one, but I was only doing it because I can't sleep." Rin said with a sigh, sitting down on the bench where Megumin slept, putting a hand on the small girl's head. "Archer, I made a mistake."

Shirou blinked. "You made a mistake?" He said, unsure if he had heard her right. "Sorry, you lost me there. What exactly did you do wrong?"

"I offered them a choice in this world where all choices are an illusion." Rin said. "I gave them time to think about whether or not they wanted to join the group. I felt like I was letting them decide for themselves. I… I forgot what kind of world this was. Either that, or the World itself put those words into my mouth. I don't even know anymore."

At first Shirou didn't get it, but then understanding sank in. People were going to feel compelled to leave the party. Those who were the weakest would feel like they were doing the right thing by leaving their party and joining this struggling one, leaving Shirou and Rin's team to progress and fight more powerful monsters and further Grimgar's goal. And there would be no way for Rin to know if it was really their free will, or if the Counter Force had once again pulled the strings.

She even suspected that the Counter Force or some other kind of fate was involved in choosing which classes people ended up in. Many thieves had a unique skill that could not be taught called [Gleaming Line]. The question was, did they gain the skill because they were thieves, or did they join the Thief's Guild because they possessed the characteristic that would grow into such a skill. Rin had often asked this question, saying it was key to understanding how the World decided who it would summon.

In a World where choice was an illusion and you had no memories, what in the world were you supposed to believe in?

"And the truth is, when Itsuki first suggested it, I felt so relieved." Rin admitted, laughing softly at her own shame. All of the constant stress and paranoia was starting to get to her. The things she had to bottle up while others were around, and now that it was just her and Shirou, the floodgates were starting to break. "I couldn't wait to get rid of some of these annoying bastards who are always causing me such a headache. Is that really me? Was that just a moment of weakness caused by stress, am I just a bad person, or was that the Counter Force trying to make the option seem more appealing? Was the suggestion even Itsuki's? It seemed like something he would say, but he isn't exactly known for having ideas. And now, if I retract my offer for volunteers, it will look like I am forcing my will on everyone again and cause even more problems. But if I don't do anything, could people die because of my actions? Because of a choice that I don't even know if it was mine or not?"

Shirou put down the hammer and took off the thick leather groves he had been wearing. He walked over to Rin and put his arms around her, enveloping her in a hug. The girl was surprised by it but didn't pull away. "Rin, we are doing everything we can. You can't let yourself be driven mad by this. You need your rest." Shirou said in as soothing a tone that he could manage. It was unusual to see Rin breaking down.

"Ar…Shirou." Rin mumbled, starting to tear up as she hugged him back. "There are so many things inside of the Magic Tattoo. The results of so many horrible experiments. The things that have been done to people in the name of research… It makes me afraid of the kind of person I was before I came to this world."

Shirou didn't know what to say at first. This was the first he had heard about it. He had noticed when Rin suddenly stopped sleeping at night, but he had thought it was because of her trying to fit in more research. "Rin, you aren't a bad person." Shirou assured her.

"And how would you now that?" Rin said quietly.

"Because I know you." Shirou said. "You aren't the kind of person who would hurt others for your own benefit. Maybe for petty vengeance, but definitely not for personal gain." Shirou joked.

Rin laughed a little bit at Shirou's attempt to cheer her up and held on a little harder to him. "Please… just give me a little while longer like this, then I'll be back to my old self and trying to take my petty vengeance upon you for seeing me like this." She said as she buried her head in his armpit. "You smell horrible."

"I've been busy." Shirou said in his defense.

"You've been around Kuro and his party too much. You're beginning to stink like them. That's the real reason why Rock will never get laid." She said, though she didn't remove her head from its resting spot. They were there like that for nearly a minute when another voice broke up the moment.

"Onii-chan…?" Megumin mumbled, pushed himself up and rubbing her eyes. She looked up at Shirou and Rin hugging as the two of them looked down at her. "…Weird dream." The child said before flopping back down and closing her eyes again.

A moment passed as Shirou and Rin stared at the sleeping girl before Rin gave an uncontrolled snort of laughter. "I'll take her inside." She said, untangling herself from Shirou and lifting the small child up in her arms with a little difficulty. Shirou himself went back to the anvil and grabbed a piece of metal from the flames with a large pair of tongs. "And Archer." Rin said, going back to the annoying nickname. She smiled back at him, her face made even more beautiful by the dancing flames and moisture in her aqua colored eyes. "Don't work yourself to death either. You are far too valuable to me for me to just let you die."

"Won't dream of it." Shirou said with a smile of his own. "Sleep tight." Rin left and Shirou returned to his work, now wondering what had possessed him to do what he had just done. Rin had promised vengeance, but would she actually take it?

When the morning came, Yukari, Aoi, and Touma all stepped forward to leave the party, saying that they thought it would be best for everyone if they left forever rather than just until Ayako's group could get new members. Rin only smiled at them with fake reassurance and told them that they could always ask for help if they needed it.

Volunteer.

What a hateful and misleading word.

* * *

 **Two quick things.**

 **First it has been brought to my attention that Lumiaris is actually female. Oops. Sorry, everyone just referred to her as the GOD of light, rather than Goddess, so I made assumptions. I formally apologize to all the feminists, but I'm not going to rewrite the part because it is funnier to have a goddess show stumping on a presumptuous god rather than on another goddess.**

 **Second, people keep insisting that Shirou and Rin should start up a clan. The problem is that you just don't have clans of noobs. The entire point of a clan is to have everyone gather together to take down larger targets. You don't do that with rookies who can't be counted on to hold their own and follow instructions. Being a clan made up of a bunch of rookie teams who never work together and have no common goal isn't a clan. It's just a tree house club.**

 **Time for another time skip and the beginning of the end of the party and Rin's headaches... though not the guilt.**


	22. Chapter 21

His arms were sore and his head throbbing from another day spent being batted around by his sensei, but he liked the feeling. It was the feeling of getting stronger. While some others might have bitched and moaned about their little aches and bruises, Itsuki reveled in them. Knowing that each time he got thrown off that horse and he stood back up, he was one step closer to beating that damned horse to death and presenting it to Lord Skulheill.

In the beginning, they had looked down on him because he had been short, and the other guys used their size to push him around. But now, he was stronger than they were, and soon, he would be the strongest.

He had a goal, to become the strongest around, stronger than his devil of a sensei, stronger than this Soma guy everyone kept going on about, stronger even than Shirou. That was why he would never spend his days off bumming around town. Every day he would push himself harder and make himself better.

Still, after a hard day's work, when he could no longer feel his arms due to the sheer number of times he had swung his sword, he wasn't opposed to having one or two well deserved beers. Not enough to get wasted, but enough to give him a good buzz to go with the high that came from his workout. It was after all one of his life's greatest pleasures, and he was practically required by Skulheill to indulge in it.

"Here you go ser, fresh from the stores." The wench said as she gave Itsuki his flagon of ale.

Itsuki didn't thank her, he just grinned and grabbed the flagon, starting to nurse it slowly. It wasn't the best tasting thing in the world, but he knew that the slower you drank it, the better the buzz, so if you didn't plan on drinking a lot, might as well drink it slowly.

However, his sinful happy place was broken when he heard a few words coming from another nearby table. "Hey, isn't that one of the brats from Team Kindergarten?" A man from a table of five larger individuals said, pointing at Itsuki.

Itsuki froze, a bit of ale still in his mouth that he didn't swallow.

"Yeah, I think it is. Someone should probably tell his mommy and daddy that he's here trying to drink the grown-up drinks." One of the man's friends joked along with him. All of them laughed. Laughter than made Itsuki's muscles twitch angrily.

"Must be nice, having the best Hunter and Mage combo in the city taking care of you all the time. Hell, I suppose if I was in their shoes, I wouldn't mind being babied either." The first man said with fake longing.

It had started a month ago. The Wild Angels, an all-girls clan, in been attempting to convince Rin to join their ranks and invited her to join in on one of their raids. At first, she declined, but after hearing the bounty up for grabs, a trade shipment between the Kobolds and the Orcs, she accepted, so long as she could bring Shirou along.

The Wild Angels had had their eyes on Rin ever since rumors started about a talented rookie mage summoning Elemental Familiars, and the raid had been meant as a showing for the them to prove to her that there was no need for 'disgusting' boys and that she should join their group. But Rin had plans of her own.

While the others had been setting up their plan of attack, she had gone with Shirou up the road to where the Orcs were coming from, and then she and Shirou slaughtered them all themselves. Two people killing over a hundred Orcs. Shirou later insisted that Rin and her Elementals did just as much of the work as he did. Even so, it was fifty Orcs a piece, all killed within five minutes.

After that, practically every veteran team started to approach the two of them, trying to get them to switch teams. Each time, they were turn them down, staying with their rookie team. That was when the mockery started.

Even after they ditched the worst of the dead weight onto that loser team months back, they didn't move forward as quickly as it could have. Rin was so damn careful about every move they made, planning for this and that. She spent a whole week in the Cyrene Mines purposefully tripping traps and alarms just so that she could observe how the Kobolds would react to it, so they could plan escape routes accordingly. As if they couldn't just tear though any resistance that those mutts showed. Even after that she didn't keep them there for long expeditions, sticking to the first four levels, while the more valuable stuff and stronger enemies were all down deeper. She also didn't take jobs that would take them more than a day's walking distance away from the city.

Whenever Itsuki would complain, saying that the front runners from the groups after them were already passing them by, she just pointed out how half of them were already dead. Damn that woman and her sound arguments. It wasn't like it was even really relevant. So what if the weaklings died? Their group was way stronger.

Because of the party's only average progress, other Reserve Soldiers started to make fun of them. Saying that they were always being babied and couldn't handle themselves. Saying that they were a party of weaklings that had to rely on mommy and daddy being there to rescue them all the time. They jokingly called them 'Team Kindergarten'.

It pissed Itsuki off so damn much.

"You know, he kind of looks like a big bald baby if you ask…" Itsuki snapped. He turned around, throwing his flagon at the group, cocked his fist back and punched the closest one clear in the jaw.

* * *

Itsuki didn't stumble. He walked upright as he took the streets back towards the barracks. His face was badly bruised, and his ribs ached from where they had gotten a good kick on him. But the only thing that really hurt was his pride.

He had managed to down two of the five bastards before they got the better of him, but even so, that didn't stop them from laughing. No one stopped laughing. It was their laughter that rang in his ears, that made him bite down on his cheek until he tasted blood.

"I will become stronger. Stronger even that Shirou. Then no one will laugh at me." Itsuki said through his clenched teeth. "They won't laugh once I beat him."

Even as he said it, he heard a low laugh echoing in the back of his mind. "You are going to beat Shirou? Now that is amusing." Belra, the demon who Itsuki was bonded with, chuckled at the boy's declaration. "That boy is the White Goddess's personal pet, enjoying the full benefits of her blessings, and he was barely even human to being with. Sorry to tell you kid, but you don't compare."

"Shut the hell up, Belra." Itsuki hissed angrily at the demon. "I don't care if he is a human, a monster, a demon or even a god. I will surpass him."

"You haven't even reached the point he was at on the very first day." Belra said before giving a long hum. "What I wouldn't give to have a Dread Knight like that. Someone who could supply me with hundreds of vices rather than just the meager numbers you bring me."

Itsuki didn't rise to Belra's taunt. He knew that he had actually gathered vices much quicker than the average Dread Knight. He averaged around five or six a day even when taking into account his days off. He had long since passed the hundred vices mark to allow him to summon Belra during the daylight hours. But regardless the power that Belra gave him, Shirou was still stronger, faster, and more skilled than he was.

"Listen kid, I actually like you, so let me give you a piece of advice. Forget about competing with that Hunter and ignore the mockery. You've got it good, so try to just enjoy your life until it is time for me to take you." Belra said, but Itsuki ignored him. "Fine. You want to meet Lord Skulheill so bad, be my guest. It will take more than the Dread Knight's trait of luck to save a dumbass like you."

Itsuki didn't care if he died. Death was preferable to this life of mockery.

When Itsuki finally arrived at the barracks he found a few of the others lazing about. Figures as much. When they saw him, he could already see the comments in their eyes before any of them said anything.

"Got into yet another fight?" Riku said, eyeing Itsuki's bruised face.

"No. I was just teaching some people manners." Itsuki scoffed.

Yui started to approach him, holding out her hand and mumbling her prayer to use her healing spell. "Knock it off! I don't need healing!" Itsuki shouted, batting her hands away.

"You don't need to be mean, Itsuki." Niko said from her bench nearby where she lay on her back, looking up at the clouds.

"If you're going to go around getting yourself beaten up, at least accept healing afterwards." Richard said, giving the Dread Knight a sidelong look.

"I didn't get beaten up!" Itsuki growled, clenching his fists. "This is so stupid. Fuck! I'm tired of people mocking us! How can you all stand it!?" The others all looked down and remained silent. All accept for Niko.

"I guess I just don't really care." Niko said lazily.

"You don't care? You don't care that no one takes us seriously!?" Itsuki demanded incredulously.

"Well… why should I? I didn't join the Volunteer Army because I had a choice. Why should I try to excel in being a soldier when I could just keep on living on?" Niko said with a shrug.

"Don't you have any pride at all, you lazy Priest!?" Itsuki shouted at her.

"Pride is a sin. So why should a Priest have it?" Niko said before sitting up. "It's noisy. I'll find somewhere else to nap." Getting up, she started to walk away. "Just wait till dinnertime. You'll all feel better after that."

"Tsk, spineless bitch." Itsuki spat, looking away as the green haired Priestess walked back inside. He looked at the others. "So what? Do you all not care about anything either?"

The remaining three exchanged looks and then shook their heads. "Of course it pisses us off. It's humiliating. Can't even talk up the girls at the tavern because of it." Richard admitted weakly. "I know that our group could handle harder monsters, but Rin refuses to let us even try."

"What I don't understand is why Shirou just does whatever she wants." Riku added, crossing his arms. "I know she's a coward, but we've all seen what Shirou can do. He's probably one of the strongest fighters in the entire city, and yet he willingly just follows whatever orders she gives him."

Itsuki wouldn't have called Rin a coward. Overly cautious, maybe, but that girl did have more balls than most of the men he had met. It took some serious stones in order to talk down to someone as intimidating as Shirou with a sword, and she never froze up on the battlefield. Still, he wasn't about to argue the point. Riku had always had a problem with Rin being the boss, and so had Itsuki. The only difference being that Riku's problem seemed to stem from her having a vagina, while Itsuki was constantly annoyed by how she treated them like children and constantly wasted their time helping out the weaker parties. She really did treat her job like a babysitting service, and it pissed him off. Which was why Itsuki was equally annoyed with Shirou as he was with Rin, while Riku's distaste was strictly for the latter of the two.

Riku always seemed to think that everything would be different if Shirou was just the leader. Itsuki suspected that everything would be pretty much the same. Only with a less effective leader. Strong as he was, Shirou didn't have good leadership skills.

"No great mystery there." Richard laughed weakly. "After all, the two of them are always talking alone with one and other and sometimes disappear at night only to comeback tired the next morning. The two of them are fucking behind everyone's backs and not doing a terribly good job of hiding it."

"What they are doing under the light of the full moon ain't none of my business. I only care about us getting the respect we deserve." Itsuki scoffed. Most of the party had known that the two had been porking for a while now. It was weird that they pretended that they weren't, but Itsuki wasn't about to judge. He didn't announce it to anyone when he decided to have a go at a tavern wench in order to take care of his needs. "How can Shirou stand all this baby stuff?"

"He doesn't." Yui said quietly, surprising the others. "He goes out of the city with Kuro and his party on our days off. He's out with them right now."

"No, he went off this morning with Megumin." Richard said with an uncertain shake of his head.

"He left her with the Laughing Stocks, he does so every week." Yui said with a shake of her head. "I surprised you having noticed. He often brings back more… additions to his weapon stockpile. I'm pretty sure those extra hunts were how Rin was funding all the extra spells she was gets from the Mage's Guild, since I've never seen anything to suggest that he was ever buying anything himself."

"That explains it." Riku grumbled, crossing his arms. "Figures she's been spending money behind our backs."

"Hey, it's their free time and money. They don't have any say in what we do with ours." Richard pointed out. Riku rounded on him and Richard put up his hands in a sign of surrender as the larger boy started shouting at him, but Itsuki wasn't listening.

All this time Shirou had been going out and been hunting stronger monsters without them. More than just the raids, he was doing it at least twice a week. That massive stockpile of weapons, the hundreds of swords he had casually brought back and hide away in the barrack shed until the landlord started to get on his ass and made him buy an entire extra room to store them all in, that stockpile represented his kill count. No, it wasn't his total kill count. He had rarely ever picked up anything off of the goblin's bodies, as the goblins almost never had equipment worth taking. The Lesser, and Worker class Kobolds were usually either unarmed or armed with pitchforks. So much of the armor and equipment he kept came from Orcs, and its number far exceeded what he had gotten during the raids. How had Itsuki not noticed it sooner?

Shirou was so far ahead of him, and he was only going to get further ahead so long as Itsuki kept being held back. "You know what, fuck this shit. I'm out of here." Itsuki said, grabbing the others attention.

"What do you mean your out of here?" Riku said his eyes wide.

"I mean I'm not putting up with this anymore. Rin always says that she doesn't let us hunt anywhere that we couldn't handle without her and Shirou around, so why should I bother sticking around?" Itsuki snapped. "I'm tired of being held back and I'm tired of being treated like a joke. I'm getting out of here."

Itsuki walked straight past them towards the guys' room. "Hey, wait a second!" Riku called after him.

"What!?" Itsuki snapped back at the taller boy.

"You planning on going solo, or can anyone tag along?" Itsuki looked back at the other three. Riku had a serious expression on his face while the other two seemed to be weighing their options before nodding along and getting up themselves.

"Do whatever the fuck you want."


	23. Chapter 22

Shirou's morning started like just about all the others. He woke up long before anyone else, preformed his morning exercise routine and practiced opening and closing the few magic channels he had managed to gain some control over. After that he started preparing breakfast. He didn't realize that anything was different until he brought out the first few plates of food to the dining table only to find most of the seats empty.

Rin was there drinking one of the cups of tea that Shirou had left out for her. Along with her was Sara, Megumin and Niko. "Where are the others?" Shirou asked as he put down a plate full of sausages and pancakes.

"It would seem that they left last night without telling us." Rin said waving around a piece of paper. "Hard to tell. Itsuki's hand writing is almost completely illegible, and his sentence structure and grammar are pretty bad too. From what I could decipher, they seemed to have left because they are tired of me babying them."

"Oh, I see. So I guess they wouldn't be joining us for breakfast anymore." Shirou said, thinking about how much food was going to go to waste.

"There is also a bit where Itsuki swears that he will return one day to kill you and cut off your head to present to his god." Rin adds casually.

"Really?" Shirou said, a little surprised. He never realized that Itsuki hated him that much. Rin held out a few sheets of paper to Shirou and the boy took them, quickly giving them a read over.

He could hardly make out half of it, and the parts that he could read put a frown on his face. Itsuki seemed perfectly capable of writing out his swears properly. Apparently, Rin was a 'shit fucking cunt'. There was also a detailed telling of how he would take great pleasure in someday ending Shirou's life and feeding his body to the black wolves, but not before shoving every single sword Shirou owned up his ass. A truly impossible feat.

If it had been someone more skilled or perhaps someone more willing to use stealth or attack in a group saying these things, Shirou doubted he would have allowed them to live to see the sunset after making such threats. However, Itsuki wanted to beat him in single combat, and that just wasn't going to happen. Itsuki was skilled for a rookie, but Shirou was working with the combined knowledge of tens of thousands of swords.

It was only a line towards the end, where the boy's bravado was starting to dry up that caught Shirou's attention. 'I know you'll be saying that I make a stupid choose but it still my choose to make. I am the master of my own lives. So don't worry about me and the others anymore, we ain't your fucking kids.'

The choice of words almost made Shirou laugh it was so sad. He wondered if it was the Counter Force itself mocking there attempts to change the system it had set in place.

Of course, that was the thing, you never knew what was or wasn't happenstance. Every idle choice you made became subject to scrutiny once you knew that the Counter Force existed and that you are one of its targets. Was it a lapse in focus or did the Counter Force make you ignore it? Was it a poor choose of words or an idea planted by the Counter Force? Did you feel like going for a walk or was it something that the Counter Force made you want to do? Is the Counter Force trying to break you or does it not even realize you are trying to resist?

Eldritch was right to say that people were better off just not knowing about it. The mere act of thinking about it was maddening. Shirou glanced up at Rin, trying to judge her reaction to everything, hoping that this wouldn't eat at her too, but everything about her was the picture of in control. If she was affected by Itsuki's curious choice of words, she didn't show it, and he had no way of knowing what she was thinking. She would never let herself fall to piece in front of the others. They needed her to be strong, but for someone like her who liked to be in control and who thought things through, the Counter Force's existence was hard on her. Harder than it was for Shirou.

"Guy really has a way with words." Shirou said, tearing the pages up. He would burn them before Megumin had a chance to look at it.

"I'll say. I didn't even recognize a few of them." Rin agreed.

"You seem awfully calm about this." Sara said, shifting a bit in her seat. She had suddenly gone from being one of four tanks in the group to being the only pure frontline fighter.

"We've known this was coming for months. I'm actually surprised it took this long." Rin admitted with a small shrug. "Riku has hated me since the vary beginning, Itsuki can't stand being teased, Richard was only concerned with getting a girlfriend, which is hard to do when you are a laughing stock, and Yui has been weighing her options about leaving since the first week. The only reason she hadn't is because she didn't have a team to go to and was too nervous to search for one. She would have joined Ayako's team, if a healer had been in the list of things they had needed."

"Good riddance." Megumin said with a huff.

"We can only hope that they will at least follow the same logic we've been using so far for our group, no necessary risks and keeping a balanced team composition. With their skills it shouldn't be hard to find a Mage or Hunter willing to join them, and Itsuki actually can use his Demon for scouting. If they are careful, they will be fine." Rin said, sounding unconcerned. Shirou and her had judged the four's odds of survival together before and had set it at about 80% if they managed to pick up a good ranged supporter, 25% otherwise. "We can't change their minds, so for now we need to focus on how we are going to continue. Shirou will have to change from being mid-rank support to being a frontline fighter in our formation. I'll take over his position as the main barrier between the enemy and backline."

Shirou nodded his understanding. The mid-rank was normally the position of Hunters since they could both support the frontline with their bows, as well as defending the backline with blades, but since Rin was as good with her sword as most Hunters were, she was more than fit for taking up the position. With their number of frontliners reduced, Sara would need Shirou's assistance more than the backline.

"Other than that, I think that it would be for the best to have another healer in our group." Rin said.

Niko tilted her head in confusion. "But I can provide healing."

"Yes, you can, but if you get injured, we need someone capable of healing you. It is only an extra precaution against the worst-case scenario." Rin explained, after thinking about it for a second, Niko nodded in agreement. "So, I am going to leave the Mage's Guild and join the Priest's guild."

"You are!?" Sara said, not hiding her surprise. "But Rin, you are such a talented Mage. Couldn't Megumin fill the rule of our backup healer?"

"Hey!" Megumin shouted, scowling at the Paladin.

"I am, and she could, but I was thinking of leaving the Mage's Guild either way. I've already learned most of the more useful spells that the Mage's Guild has to offer and have already learned as much magical theory as I am likely to from them, so there really isn't any reason for me to stay. It was going to be either the Priest's Guild, the Paladin's Guild or the Thief's, and even if I had joined the thief's Guild, it would have just been a stepping stone before I joined the Priest or Paladin's." Rin admitted with a shrug.

"I knew it!" Megumin shouted with a bit of triumph at Rin's confession at knowing most of the Mage's Guild's spells.

It was true, Rin had been planning on moving on so that she could learn more about Divine Magic, since there was little more she could learn when it came to Elemental Magic and she had confirmed that it wouldn't be the Elementals that could get them home. The Thief's Guild's appeal stemmed from learning if she could master the [Gleaming Line], even though she was never meant for the Thief's Guild. However, that was a line of research would have been for pure curiosity, and as such was less important than learning Divine Magic.

Rin could have used the magic she had learned from the Magic Tattoo in order to preform a healing mystery, but she said that it was an extremely costly spell when compared to the basic [Cure] spell. The most powerful of these healing spells she needed to store away an entire week's worth of energy inside of one of her modified crystal coins just to perform it once. Though she kept it prepared anyways as it could help in the case of lost organs or severed limbs.

"Since I will be out retraining for the next week, feel free to take the week off. It would be safer not to proceed until we are fully prepared." Rin told them, and for once, no one complained. All of the people who were upset about the pace had already left. Sara saw it as a chance to further her own training with the Paladin's Guild, Megumin would be able to play with the Tokkis some more and perhaps join their party for a day or two of easy hunting, and Niko would never complain about having time off so long as there was no issues with the food money, and considering the amount of it that they had squirreled away, that wouldn't have been a problem if they decided to take the year off.

In fact, there was only one person with a problem. "Uh…" Shirou said awkwardly.

"Is something the matter?" Rin asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"No, nothing at all." Shirou said tried to hide a nervous twitch.

"Alright then, I'll see you all next week." Rin said before getting up from her seat and heading out the door.

"…Great." Shirou said with a sigh. Kuro had left the city the night before in order to head towards the Shadow Forests to get in touch with a group of like-minded individuals, one of several that they had reached out to in the last two months, who were trying to act as liaisons between the Tower and the Elves, and he wouldn't be back for another two weeks at least. It was good that the Tower was getting off the ground, able to add more people into the mix without becoming exposed to the general public. Rin's little organization had grown bit by bit as they identified parties who were unconvinced of moral simplicity of the Volunteer Army's existence. The group was growing influential enough to get the resources they needed through information and favor exchanges rather than having to put forth so much money like they did before, but this meant that Shirou now didn't have his normal days-off hunting partner evaluable.

The Tokkis were in town and he could join up with them and go around the local areas with them and Megumin, except that he really didn't want to be around them for an entire week. One day was enough to make him feel spiritually drained.

He could go hunting alone, but if Rin found out, she would chew his ass off. Skilled as he was, she always insisted that it was needlessly reckless to go out alone, and she was right. Nothing was certain on the battlefield. At the same time, Shirou didn't feel like blinding joining a party of complete strangers for a week of hunting.

He was running out of things to do fixing up the barracks and reshaping more of the armor he had taken would be pointless unless he already knew the measurements of the people who would be wearing them. He had been fitting second hand equipment for the new Rookie teams ever since that first time with Ayako's group, and a new batch of Trainees exited the tower just three days ago marking the fourth group since they started observing the events. Just one more full moon before Rin would have all the data she needed to map out the relative location of their home world, however that is done. After that the two of them wouldn't be bound to this city anymore and would be more free to travel around. But that would be something for the future, what was he going to do right now.

It was starting to look like he would actually have to take a real day off. He had never done that before. He wasn't even sure how to do it.

Looking at the table full of the food that he had prepared for the party members who had up and left, and he wondered what he would do with it all. It seemed like a waste.

That was when he decided he would bring it to Itsukushima, his mentor back at the Hunter's Guild, and see if the man wanted any of it. If not, he could always feed it to the Hunter's Guild's wolf pups. They would certainly be grateful for it. Who knows, maybe the Hunter's Guild even got a new recruit. It wasn't terribly likely. The Hunter's Guild wasn't that popular among brand new Trainees. It was more of a Guild that people joined after they had exhausted what could be learned at the Warriors or Thief's Guilds. Only the Dread Knights got fewer new members.

Still, he rarely visited and Itsukushima was an agreeable sort. Those few days in the forest had been the only ones were Shirou had really relaxed since coming out of that Tower. Maybe the older man knew the secret of how to take a real day off. Itsukushima always insisted that he would someday manage to teach Shirou something worth wild.

As Shirou packed away the leftover breakfast, he idly wondered if this was his own choice or some plot set in motion by the Counter Force. It wasn't as though he would be able to tell the difference.

* * *

 **And that was when the writer realized... that he was the Counter Force... O the humanity.**

 **Yes I know Itsuki's letter had a lot of grammar errors in it. That was the joke.**


	24. Chapter 23

The Hunter's Guild hadn't changed one bit. The sounds of wolves barking and playing about filled the air. The pure white of their coats showed their connection to the White Goddess, and they were just as playful as the Goddess they served.

The hounds swarmed around Shirou as soon as he entered the gate, either wanting pets or smelling the food he had brought with him. He was forced to wade through them on the way to the back of the building where the archery field was and where Itsukushima sat watching a girl practicing archery.

As he saw Shirou rounding the corning of the building, Itsukushima broke into a smile. "And so the prodigal son returns. Here I thought you were too good to pay me a visit."

"I've been keeping myself very busy." Shirou said guiltily rubbing the back of his neck. "But now I suddenly find myself with a lot of free time, so I thought I would come by and see if you could teach me how to spend it." He then lifted up the container full of leftovers. "I've brought food as payment for the lesson."

"Well, take a seat. It's a little early for lunch, but I won't say no." Itsukushima said, slapping at the chair next to him, then as Shirou took a seat he shouted out into the field. "Yume, come take a break! Got someone you can meet here!"

"Yes, sensei!" The girl shouted back before shouldering her bow and running out into the field to retrieve her arrows before coming over. Shirou noted that none of the arrows were actually in the target, most of them weren't anywhere close.

As the girl came closer to them, Shirou managed to get a good look at her. She looked around sixteen with reddish brown hair, just a few shades away from Shirou's own rusty red, done in two long braids over either of her shoulders. She was petite with the same body type as Rin, that is to say, substantial hips but small breasts. But the most shocking feature of her was her bright aqua eyes. They had so much life and energy in them, completely different from the frightened and confused looks that you saw in most brand-new Rookies.

"Sensei wants to introduce Yume to someone?" Yume asked cheerfully, referring to herself in third person.

"Just one of your senpais. This here is Shirou, one of the best Hunters in the city. I had the pleasure of his company a few months back when he first joined the Hunter's Guild. He's also decided to bring us something nice to eat." Itsukushima said, introducing Shirou.

Yume turned to Shirou with a huge smile on her face and gave a short bow. "Yume is happy to meet you, senpai. Yume hopes that senpai will take good care of Yume. ~Yan." She said cheerfully, ending her little display with a noise that sounded kind of like a kitten's meow.

"Um… It's nice to meet you too, Yume." Shirou responded, giving a slight nod of the head towards the energetic girl.

"She's adorable, ain't she." Itsukushima said with a smirk. "Now, what did you bring us?"

Shirou opened up his bundle and brought out the eggs, pancakes and sausages, laying them out on plates on an equipment rack. "Wow, that smells really really good." Yume said as she sniffed the air. "It makes Yume's mouth water."

"Feel free to have as much as you like." Shirou said. There had been enough for four or five people there. So long as Yume didn't turn out to be some kind of bottomless pit, there wouldn't be a problem.

"Thank you, Senpai, but first, Yume must make an offering." Yume said, picking up one of the sausages. She went over to the grass and down into a kneeling position. She was about to place the sausage on the ground and perform one of the little prayers to Eldritch that the Hunters always did, when she was mobbed by five little white wolves, each of which were trying to grab up the sausage for themselves. Yume let out a squeak of surprise as the wolves playfully wrestled around on top of her.

Itsukushima just laughed good naturedly from the sidelines. "Girl is sweet as they come."

"I suppose so." Shirou said, watching as the girl struggled to free herself from the wolf pups before changing tactics and trying to wrestle with them herself. Soon it was the wolves trying desperately to get away from her as she grinned and laughed.

"Yume hopes that Eldritch appreciates that Yume tried. Yume forgets sometimes that there are so many wolves about. Though she really loves the cute little wolfies. Yume is glad that she is going to be a Hunter and can someday get an [Animal Companion], even if Yume isn't any good with a bow." Yume said as she joined them back at the table.

"You'll improve." Itsukushima said, though Shirou didn't think he sounded all that convincing.

As they ate, Yume kept on talking about how much she loved the wolves and the other animals, and of how happy she was when she had first met Eldritch in her dreams. She couldn't decide between talking and eating and was doing both so quickly that she nearly choked twice even as Itsukushima tried to remind her to slow down and be careful.

After a few minutes of fast paced talking/eating, the girl got back up and returned to her archery practice, Shirou and Itsukushima watching her from nearby. "She's a sweet thing. She has the spirit of a good Hunter and is a natural when it comes to drawing on her own inner strength, but she just can't shoot an arrow worth a darn." Itsukushima said with a sigh. "I'm afraid I just don't know how to help her. I was hoping that practicing would fix things, but it's been three days with little results. Though she keeps on giving it her all, bless her heart."

"Is that so." Shirou said as she watched Yume practice, spotting all of the holes in her form and technique, things that wouldn't have been visible to people without his level of insight into weapons.

"So, the word around town is that you got yourself a girlfriend. A pretty Mage girl. Is that true?" Itsukushima asked, smirking at the boy.

"No. She's my leader. Not my girlfriend." Shirou said, though his eyes didn't stray from Yume as she drew her bow. Then, before Itsukushima could say anymore, Shirou got up and walked over to where Yume was standing. "You want some advice?" He offered her.

Yume looked at him with surprise before smiling. "Yes please."

"Alright, get into stance." Shirou told her and the girl did so. Shirou put a hand on her right shoulder and pulled it back ever so slightly, straightening the girl's back, as he did so, he kicked at the girl's right foot. "Move this foot back a bit and turn it to the side a little more." Yume did as he said. "Alright, now start drawing your arrow, keeping your left arm locked as you pull with the right." He placed a hand on her left arm, shifting it slightly so that her aim would be closer to the mark as the girl drew her arrow. The girl struggled a bit to keep the arrow drawn back, but still held on, waiting for instruction. "Now, when you release the arrow, don't jerk your fingers away, it will ruin your shot. You need to slowly relax your fingers until the arrow pulls itself free of your grip."

Yume nodded and did as she was told, gently relaxing the fingers of her right hand and letting the arrow fly. The arrow lodged itself in the outer ring of the target, it was only barely a hit, but it was still a hit.

Yume gave a squeal of joy and proceeded to jump up and down. "Yume did it! Yume actually hit the target!" She shouted in celebration. "Thank you so much senpai!"

"Don't celebrate yet. You can save that for after you hit the bullseye. Now, try again. Focus on your form for now and we will work on your accuracy later." Shirou told her. She nodded and got back into position. Drawing her next arrow and firing it, just barely missing the target. "That was good, but try to adjust your breathing in time with your draw…"

Itsukushima watched as Shirou instructed the girl in the art of shooting a bow and succeeded in doing in one afternoon what he had failed to make any progress in for three days. In just four hours, Yume was able to consistently hit the target, often in the inner circles.

"Kid, you are a damn miracle worker." Itsukushima whispered to Shirou as one of Yume's arrows actually hit the bullseye.

"She's working with ideal conditions right now. It won't be so easy out in the field." Shirou said as he watched her jump for joy. "But, she really has improved quite a bit."

"Not sure if you realize this, but this is around the level of skill normal Hunters have when they leave our care after the first week." Itsukushima informed him.

"Yes. I know." Shirou admitted. Learning how to shoot an arrow to the level of combat effectiveness in just one week was more difficult that just learning to swing a sword left and right, which was about as much finesse as a week one rookie Warrior could handle. Most of the time would be spent learning to draw the slight amount of energy used to perform their [Rage Cleaver] technique. Hunters had an advantage in this, in that Eldritch would help them learn to control their energy in the first few nights as they slept, leaving practice to be used to master the bow.

The problem with the Guilds' mentors system was that most instructors were natural gifted individuals who had been able to learn the techniques with ease. If they hadn't been, then they likely wouldn't have survived long enough to become mentors. However, these kinds of people aren't often very good at helping people through problems, because they have never experienced the problem themselves. Itsukushima was a good man who had really tried his best, but he wouldn't have been able to teach Yume to correct her missteps. However, Shirou had experiences from thousands of bows. He knew just about every way that an arrow could possible be shot incorrectly, even if he had never made such mistakes himself.

"Hey Yume, I think that is enough archery for now. How about we get back to your swordsmanship training." Itsukushima shouted out to the girl.

"Okay, sensei!" Yume shouted, once again running into the field to retrieve her arrows, only this time with nearly every one of them buried in the target.

"You don't have to worry. She's pretty passable with a blade, but maybe you can help her with that too." Itsukushima said with a sly smile.

"We'll see." Shirou said, wondering how good was passable.

Itsukushima didn't so much instruct Yume as he handed her a dulled machete and told her to practice the strikes he had already taught her, moving back to Shirou in order to see what the boy thought.

It was true that Yume had a lot more confidence now with a one handed sword than she had before with a bow. She could perform most of the basic strikes of the Hunter's Guild just fine. Even so, Shirou found several flaws in her movements. "When she brings around her blade, it is in too wide a pattern, and she shifts her balance too much while making her strikes." Shirou reported, after watching the girl for two minutes.

"Yeah, she wastes a little energy on that kind of thing, but considering that she is just a fresh Trainee, her abilities are still outstanding." Itsukushima said. Shirou nodded in agreement, but there was something else about how she was moving besides just the slight waste of energy. It seemed as though she was instinctively attempting to compensate for a much longer and heavier sword, one that still had a single edge. She also kept moving up her left hand to try for a two-handed strike, but the machete's length doesn't allow for that.

"Yume, come here for a second." Shirou called the girl over as he stood up himself. He reached for his black scimitar and removed it from his shoulder. "Try using this for a bit."

"Oh, alright senpai." She said, taking the much larger blade from Shirou. The scimitar was over twice the length of the machete she had just been using, and the curve of its blade and handle were much more pronounced, even if both were classified as cutlass-type weapons.

Itsukushima frowned and began to protest. "She's not going to be able to…" The man immediately stopped talking as Yume continued her practice. The awkwardness to her movements had been lessened greatly and she continued to use the larger blade with little wasted energy at all. A wide smile spread across her face as she swung the blade against and again.

"It still isn't a perfect match. Weight it too far away from the center for her, and she is struggling with the handles shape when she goes for the two-handed grip. But it is much better." Shirou said, scratching his chin. "She must have had quite a bit of sword training in her previous life with a weapon that was closer to this in dimensions and her body remembers the feel even if her mind doesn't. Which was why when you gave her a machete, she was having a hard time adjusting." Shirou quickly went through the list of blades he had in his mind, comparing each one to the girl's style. "I think that I have a weapon back in my weapons shed that might work even better."

"…You have a weapons shed?" Itsukushima said, raising an eyebrow.

"Um… yes."

* * *

Yume was practically giggling with giddiness as she swung around the blade that her senpai had give her, practicing the different forms for the Hunters' skills, only with her own little twist on them. "Yume, be careful, that is a sharpened blade! You're going to get hurt!" Her sensei scolded her.

Yume did stop and laughed apologetically. "Sorry sensei, but Yume feels like a fishy soaring through the sky." She said rubbing the back of her head with her free hand. Her heart was beating fast in her chest and she just wanted to continue.

"It's a fish swimming with the stream or a bird soaring in the sky. Don't mix them." Her sensei said with a sigh. "Just be a little more careful."

"Yume will!" Yume said, rocking a little as her excitement threatened to boil over.

"So, how do you like the sword? Anything seem off?" Her senpai asked her.

Yume shook her head, causing her twin braids to flap about widely. "No, this sword is the best." She said holding up the blade so that she could examine its pretty surface. The metal had all kinds of blended shapes and pattern in it that reminded Yume of the kind of pattern waves make as they wash up on the beach. The blade shimmered whenever she turned it in the afternoon sun, giving the girl goosebumps. The blade was just short of twice the length of the small machete she had been using up until that day, and the hilt was long enough for Yume to grab it with both her hands.

"It's called a Katana. Or at least, it was based on the Katana model, it is a little shorter than a normal Katana would be and made of a different type of steel." Her senpai explained. "The alloy is commonly called Damascus steel, which is why it has that banding pattern to it. It's a metal commonly used because of its artistic qualities, but it's still one of the best alloys around for both strength and holding an edge."

"Katana." Yume said, feeling the word sliding off her tongue. She felt like she had heard it before but wasn't sure where she had heard it. It was a word that made her feel really happy. "Yume is going to call it Kaa-tan!" Yume's sensei let out a choked snorting sound before beginning to cough uncontrollably. "Huh, does sensei not think it's a cute name?" Yume said, pouting a little at the man's reaction.

"No… no, it's cute alright. I just… wasn't prepared for that." Sensei said, pound at his chest a bit to get back control over his breathing. Yume smiled again, glad that her sensei liked the name.

"The blade suits you better, but you will need to change the Hunters' skills a little in order to make them work with the longer blade." Senpai said, pulling out his own large black sword. "Here, I'll show you how."

Just like when he had taught her the bow, her senpai started to show Yume the steps of how to use the Hunters' techniques with a longer weapon, going so far as to show her the exact angle to hold her arms and how to pace her breathing. Then he gave her a few forms to try out and talked her through those too. Everything she did felt more natural than before, like her body already new some of the steps. While her senpai showed her how to use the longer sword, her sensei watched with interest.

She hoped her sensei didn't get the wrong idea. She really enjoyed sensei teaching her, but everything senpai did and said just worked so well. Sensei had said that Senpai was one of the best Hunters in the city, and Yume could believe it. He had that same feeling of strength that Renji had, with his large shoulders and hard face, but he was actually really nice.

"You know kid, maybe I should look into having you declared a mentor for the guild." Sensei said, presumably to senpai and not Yume.

"Maybe if I ever get to the point where I am thinking about retiring." Senpai said with a small shake of the head. "A mentor needs to be on hand in case their students need help, and I am not very good at sitting still. Besides, I never learned most of the Hunter's skills. I stopped after the basic training and [Keen Senses]."

"Hmph, if you say so. Maybe once you finally settle down and have some of those kids, you'll start to see the appeal of a job that doesn't require you to leave the city much, and you could pick up the rest of the skills quick enough." Sensei replies with a shrug. "But if you insist on being such a busybody, how about you try the job out. Yume here seemed to have improved enough to be ready to start her field training. How's about you be the one to take her into the forest for the last three days and show her the ropes? You know more than enough to do that."

"Hm, I do have some time off." Senpai said, scratching his chin. He glanced over at Yume who was trying to pretend that she was still giving her sword swings her full focus. "It's your choice, Yume. If you want I can take over the rest of your training, or you can keep going with Itsukushima-sensei."

"Well…" Yume started, lowering her sword a bit and glancing at her sensei. The man gave her a wave of the hand, as if to tell her to go ahead and do it. "Senpai is really good at explaining things so that Yume can understand them. Yume would really appreciate it if Senpai would continue to teach Yume things, though Yume would understand if senpai was busy."

Her senpai gave a sort of kind of smile, one that felt like he wanted to smile, but that his body just didn't know how to do it properly. "I'd be more than happy to help you train."

Yume jumped up and down happily. "Thank you senpai! Yume will be in your care!"

"Yume, careful! The sword!" Her sensei shouted at her, worried for her safety.

"Oops, sorry ~yan." Yume said, stopping her celebration long enough to put her blade away. Her gut instinct was right all along. She could become a real Hunter.

She was one step closer to getting her own cute little wolfie.

* * *

 **Leaning more towards Yume's light novel persona than the anime one.**


	25. Chapter 24

"Oh, it's so adorable! Hey, senpai, what is this one called?" Yume asked pointing towards a small fuzzy white animal with tiny pawed limbs and a flat face and ears so small that they were hidden in the fur. It was looking up at her with small beady black eyes.

"That's a Chimo. They are harmless creatures that don't mind humans. Most people believe that there is something sacred about them and wouldn't do anything to hurt them." Shirou told her, keeping his voice down. "I know you like seeing new things, but if you don't keep your voice down, you are going to scary all the animals away."

"Yeah, Yume knows, but she can't help it. It's just too cute." Yume, controlling her voice a little better as she poked at the fluffy creature. "Yume wishes she could have one as a pet. Hey, senpai, can Yume keep this one?"

"That wouldn't be a very good idea. They tend not to live very long if they are taken too far away from the trees they were born in." Shirou told her.

"Is that so." Yume said sadly. "Sorry little Chilu. Yume can't keep you."

Shirou didn't bother correcting her on its name. He had honestly stopped caring after the girl kept mispronouncing mud goblins as mud puddings. It wasn't worth the energy to correct her all the time.

It was the second day of their little camping trip and Shirou had already instructed Yume in how to set up a functional campsite and identifying some of the edible plants in the area. Today he was starting to teach her tracking. Or he was trying to. That turned out to be much harder than teaching her the basics of how to use a bow or a katana.

It wasn't that Yume had no tracking skills at all. It was that she just couldn't focus. She would awaken the [Tracking] ability, sharpen her senses and focus her will on identifying all things in nature around her, and then ten seconds later something would snap her out of it and she would be staring at a butterfly. She was composed of two contradictory character traits: persistence and fickleness.

"Yume, try to focus. You wanted to see the bear, didn't you?" Shirou reminded her. They had been following the bear's trail for nearly an hour and were just behind it.

"Right." Yume said, giving a sharp nodded and taking a deep breath. Her eyes became less focused as she took in all of her surrounds as a whole before isolating individual elements and focusing in on them. She spotted the next claw mark in a patch of dirt close by and moved in that direction, her head turning this way and that as she took in her surroundings.

She snapped twigs as she went and left plenty of signs that she herself had been there, which wasn't ideal for a scout, but she was at least able to follow the bear's trail. Hiding one's own presence was the hardest part of being a Hunter. They followed the tracks for another minute before Shirou stopped her. "That's close enough." He said, surprising the girl out of her trance. "Get in the tree."

Shirou helped Yume climb up into the tree next to them. They laid down on their stomachs on the branches and made holes in the leaves so that they could see. Yume gasped in delight as she saw a large brown bear lazily moving through bushes fifty feet ahead of them.

"It's so big and fluffy." Yume said, hardly able to contain her excitement at seeing the bear. "Yume has never seen a real bear before. At least, she can't remember ever seeing one."

Shirou didn't really understand why she was so amazed by the bear. In his mind, a bear was just a large animal and an omnivore that had no territorial instincts. Dangerous if provoked, but because it had such a wide selection of things that it could eat, it was unlikely to attack a human when there were creatures and berries that were much less capable of defending themselves about. Best course of action when meeting a bear would be to just shrug your shoulders, keep your distance, and live and let live.

Yume had the same kind of childlike wonder about her as Megumin did, seeing the world with eyes unclouded by fear or mistrust. Being so blissfully unaware of their situations as to not realize that a Hunter hunts things or that an explosion might hurt someone.

No, that wasn't quite accurate. Shirou had long suspected that Megumin was just emotionally distancing herself from the world and its consequences. She probably understood the death and fear around her more than she let on. Shirou could tell by the way she would shake about in her sleep at night, occasionally waking up and asking if she could lie with him until the monsters went away.

Perhaps Yume was the same way, and everything he had seen up until this point was just a brave face she was putting on, the same way Rin always acted as though she was in complete control until it was just the two of them. It had taken over a month before Rin dropped her guard completely around Shirou and let him know that the stress of life affected even her. He probably wouldn't find out if Yume's bravery was being used as a veil, or if it persisted all the way to her true self.

"You aren't going to shoot this one too, are you senpai?" Yume whispered to Shirou giving him a serious look, as if promising horrible consequences if he said 'yes'. She had not been happy when Shirou had shot a pair of deer the day before. Another person who never considered where the meat they ate every day came from.

"No. We have plenty of food for now." Shirou assured her, wondering what she would have done if he had said yes.

After his reassurance that they wouldn't be killing the bear, Yume went back to her cheerful gushing about how she wanted to hug the big fuzzy creature like it was a giant teddy bear. Shirou wasn't entirely sure what a teddy bear was. Perhaps it was a breed that had existed in their previous world. It must have been a smaller domesticated breed, kind of like how house cats were to their more wild and larger cousins.

After watching the bear until it moved on, Shirou decided it was time for them to put the [Tracking] skill to better use. "Yume, it is time for you to have your first real hunt." Shirou told her.

Yume scowled. "I don't want to hurt cute animals."

"We're going to be hunting monsters." Shirou clarified to her. The scowl slid slowly off of her face.

"Oh. That is our job, isn't it?" Yume said, still not sounding too excited about the prospect of killing things. "As long as Yume doesn't have to hurt any cute animals, it will be okay."

"Don't worry. Goblins aren't cute at all."

* * *

Shirou and Yume had found a trail left by some goblins and followed it until they found the ones leaving the trail. Shirou taught the girl the importance of routinely leaving the tracks and scouting head before coming back to the trail, rather than just keeping your nose to the tracks.

If he had not stopped her earlier, she wouldn't have noticed the bear until she had practically bumped into it, she was so focused on the trail. Another lesson she was learning was how to move around the brush, using it as a shield to block vision rather than moving through it and causing noise. But even with this lesson, Shirou was all too aware of the amount of noise her shoes from the old world were making. Even though it was late summer and there weren't yet the blankets of leaves on the ground, she still made an uncomfortable amount of noise as she tried to sneak. He'd need to talk to her about changing her footwear to something quieter. Itsukushima would probably take care of that when he gave her the second-hand clothes given to graduates of the Hunter's Guild's training program. If not, Shirou could help her later.

Yume and Shirou caught up to the goblins where they had stopped in a clearing to set up a temporary fire for cooking. It was often how things went. Attacking while the enemy was busy preparing food or eating was the best opening. The need to be away from the dense brush when setting up fires always drove them out into the open more often than not. However, Shirou only spotted two goblins, while the tracks before suggested that there should be three. Didn't matter. Even if the last one came back, they would be able to handle it.

"It would be best if we shot them at the same time. I'll aim for the one on the left, you aim for the one on the right." Shirou told Yume, pulling out his own bow.

"Right." Yume whispered back, taking out the bow she had been given. Shirou glanced down at the rather worn bow. The wood still had some life in it, and the string was recently replaced, but its power was waning with time and wouldn't last forever. She'd need a replacement for that eventually.

Shirou nodded back at her and started to draw his own bow. "Tell me when your ready, and we will shoot on a five count.

Yume took a deep breath and started to notch her arrow. She stood up straight, counting on the bushes and the goblins' own distractions to hide her. She got her feet into stance as best she could on the slight slope of the hill and raised her bow. All of her focus was on steadying herself, as if she was on the practice field again. It would help her now, but sooner or later she would need to deal with things like moving targets and uneven footing. The practice field conditions were too ideal, meant for archers who would be on a castle wall, rather than it the dense forest. "Ready."

"Alright." Shirou said, drawing back his arrow. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One." They both release the arrows from the strings, Shirou purposely firing slightly after Yume to compensate for his bow's greater strength making the arrow travel faster.

The two arrows hit and almost the exact same time, Shirou's taking his goblin through the head, killing it instantly, while Yume's arrow passed through the lower back of her target, close to its hips. The goblin gave a horrible shriek of pain as its spine and bladder were both pierced by the arrow, causing it to collapse to the ground, unable to move its legs. Even so, the goblin started to try to crawl away towards the bushes on the far side of the clearing.

"It's not getting away like that, but the noise it causes can draw trouble. You should finish the job." Shirou instructed Yume. He waited a moment for the girl to comply and draw another arrow, but the young hunter never moved. "Yume?"

Shirou glanced over to see the girl's eyes locked onto the retreating form of the goblin, her hands had a slight shake to them and her breathing was more rapid than before.

Shirou frowned, not understanding why she was suddenly so shaken. He hadn't sensed any sort of mystic properties about the goblin's screams that would have carried a killing intent, nor were they close enough for her to be overwhelmed by the smell of blood. So why was she so shaken?

With her hands so unstable she wouldn't be shooting her bow, and even injured to this extent, a goblin could still lash out if they got close enough to finish it with her katana, and they didn't have any healer with them. For safety's sake, Shirou drew a second arrow and shot the goblin through the back of the head, silencing it.

One the noise had died down Shirou turned to Yume. "Are you alright?"

Yume lowered her bow and nodded. "Yume is okay." She said weakly as her breathing began to slow back down. She still looked pale though. Whatever it was that had gripped her hadn't gone away completely.

"Then we will take what we can and move on. It is best not to linger after you make a kill." Shirou said, starting down towards the corpses. He stopped at the first goblin he had shot and quickly removed the arrow, wiping the blood off on the grass before returning it to one of his quivers. He then stripped off its talisman necklace and pocketed it, hardly even caring what the mud goblin had been collecting. He then moved on to the second goblin, the one that Yume had shot. "Your arrow got his spine, just above the hips. Looks like the shaft broke when he fell. Pity. The arrow can't be recovered." Shirou said as he examined the wound. "It was a good shot though."

"We… we just killed them." Yume said meekly. Shirou blinked in surprised and looked back at Yume who was staring at the dead goblin. "They didn't fight back or do anything. We just came along and killed them."

"Yes, that's right." Shirou said, not seeing a problem with this. Then he remembered Yume's aversion to killing animals. "Yume, these are not ordinary animals. They are goblins, one of the races that have made mankind their enemy."

"They probably had families and friends." Yume mumbled weakly.

Shirou frowned, even more confused than before. It sounded as though she thought that the goblins were somehow people. Shirou blinked to himself, realizing that it might be closer to the truth than he had ever really considered. They were capable of using tools, forming language, and banding together for survival. Perhaps the differences between them and humans weren't as large as Shirou considered. He had never really given it much thought as he killed them by the hundreds.

Then again, in the beginning, Shirou wasn't all that opposed to killing humans either. He still wasn't about it if the situation demanded it. Goblins were at war with humanity. So as a human, it was pretty much natural to kill them before they could kill him. But it seemed as though Yume didn't share his feelings, or lack there of, on the matter.

Shirou wondered if the others in his early party had ever thought the same as she did. Perhaps that was why they often viewed him as some kind of monster even though he was constantly helping them, because he was able to kill hundreds of thinking, feeling creatures without a hint of remorse.

Well, it was in the past. For now it was best to focus on the present and get Yume to forget about this notion that goblins were equal to people. "No, they wouldn't have had any family, nor were they likely to ever have any. Goblins don't care for their young past a week, and in goblin society, only the elite are permitted to have children at all. Mud goblin's like these would have never had any kids of their own."

"That… that's so sad." Yume sniffed a little, wiping at her eyes. She was so distracted, she didn't notice the rustling in a nearby bush.

Shirou sighed, got up and walked over to Yume, putting a hand on her head. "Yume. I understand that you care for other living things, but I suggest you forget that sentiment when it comes to monsters." Shirou said, trying to calm her down. "There is a reason why people call them that. They have been at war with humanity for hundreds of years. They hate all humans and will try to kill you on sight, regardless your intentions."

The goblin that had been seeking up in the bushes shot an arrow straight at Yume and Shirou batted it out of the air with a throwing knife he had drawn in his free hand. Yume was surprised by the sudden attack on her and turned just in time to see the goblin trying to make an escape.

Shirou threw his knife and it landed squarely between the goblin's shoulder blades, bringing the creature down. "Remember. Even if you feel sympathy for them, they will never return the feeling. They are not like that bear where if you just pay them respect and give them their space they will leave you alone. This is war, and it is kill or be killed." The girl was still confused, but the attack on her life had jarred her out of her guilt induced shock. "If you can't accept that, then I suggest you give up on becoming a Hunter."

"No! Yume will become a good Hunter! Eldritch said she could!" Yume said, shaking her head rapidly and causing her braids to fly about. "Yume can do it. She just… wasn't expecting the pudding to scream like that."

"Yes, goblins tend to be screamers." Shirou admitted. "Just so you know, they don't feel as much pain as they sound like they do. You could stab a goblin a dozen times, and so long as you didn't get it in the head, the lungs or the heart, it will continue to try to move. I've seen a goblin continuing to try to fight even with a dagger buried in its throat, just because its windpipe could still transport air to its lungs, so long as the knife wasn't removed. It is the only reason why goblins are dangerous, they just ignore pain. So remember this, when they are screaming like that, it is because they are trying to call for help, not because they are in pain."

"Yes, senpai." Yume said, nodding her head. She was recovering quickly.

Shirou bent down and retrieved the talisman from the goblin that Yume had gotten in the back and throw it to the girl. "Your first kill."

"But you were the one to kill it." Yume said, looking down at the talisman. It had two rather odd shaped fangs dangling from it, as well as some kind of bone.

"No. I just put it out of its misery. It would have died from your arrow anyways. It was only a matter of time." Shirou said as he walked towards the goblin in the bushes in order to retrieve his throwing knife. "We'll find another group. Next time I expect you to fire more than just one shot. After the first arrow you won't be firing at a still target. You'll find it is a lot harder to hit an enemy that knows you're shooting at it."

"Don't worry senpai. Yume will try until she succeeds. Yume won't shut down again like that." Yume assured him.

"Good. Now let go."

* * *

 **Some people have asked if I have a backlog at all this is coming from or if I am writing on a daily bases. I actually am writing these short chapters out on pretty much a daily bases. It's about two or three hours of writing a day, which I can still do alongside my classes, so long as nothing else comes up.**


	26. Chapter 25

Haruhiro walked through the streets, all too aware of how light his purse was now that he had finished his Thief's training. Now if he wanted to survive, he would need to go out and fight monsters, a task he wasn't sure if he was prepared for. While he wouldn't exactly say the training wasn't worth it, he was hardly a master of the skills he learned there.

He raised a hand and tried to rub the exhaustion out of his trademarked tired eyes. They were so integral to his image that his mentor, Barbara, named him after them, calling him 'Sleepy Cat'. Haruhiro was very glad he didn't have to share his thief's name with people outside of the guild. It was too embarrassing.

As he approached the arranged meeting spot for his new party, he saw that he wasn't to be the first person there. Yume and Ranta both stood in front of Dory's Kebabs. Ranta was dressed in leather armor and had a long sword attached to one hip, while Yume had a bow and quiver on her back and two bladed weapons. One, a shorter weapon a little less than a foot and a half in length if you included the handle which attached to her hip. The other, a two and a half foot blade, including the hilt, which she wore across her back.

"Ranta! Yume!" Haruhiro called, feeling unexpectedly glad to see the two people he had barely gotten to known for more than a few short hours a week back. He supposed any human company was appreciated after his week with his sexy and sadistic mentor.

Yume's expression was cheerful as before as she half greeted him through a mouth full of kebab. Ranta looked at Haruhiro as if he was a weirdo for being so happy to see them. It actually made Haruhiro feel slightly embarrassed. If the curly haired redhead thought he was acting weird then things were pretty bad. He tried to reel it in and act more casual.

"So, how've you two been? Where is everyone else?" Haruhiro asked the two of them.

"Alright I guess." Ranta said with a disinterested shrug. "The others haven't shown up yet. So it's just us for now."

"Hrmph erm murmrph…" Yume struggled to speak around a mouthful of meat before she started to choke. Haruhiro was a little worried as she started to pound her chest before taking a large gasp of air.

"Are you alright?" Haruhiro asked her as she caught her breath.

"Fine. Down wrong pipe…" Yume pushed out her words between breaths.

"You shouldn't try to talk with your mouth full like that. Just swallow first, then talk." Haruhiro told her.

"Yume doesn't know why, but Yume always feels in a rush whenever she is eating. Sensei was always saying, 'Yume, you should try to eat more slowly.' Well, actually he was more like 'YUME, EAT MORE SLOWLY'!" The girl said, trying to imitate the deep voice of a man.

Ranta gave the girl a questioning look. "Can you actually use that bow? You don't really come across as a Hunter to me." The boy said bluntly. He was still rude as ever.

"Well, at first Yume's sensei said that Yume wasn't very good at archery, since no matter how much Yume practiced, she never seemed to improve, but then Yume's senpai helped her, and now Yume can hit the target just fine, though her senpai still says she has a long way to go." Yume said, hardly pausing for a breath. She sounded very happy about it. "Yume is going to be a good Hunter. Yume can't wait to get a wolfie as an animal companion."

"A wolf huh." Haruhiro said. Experienced Hunters were able to tame and share their thoughts and wills with wolves. Actual wolves too, and not just common dogs. It was rather kick ass, and Haruhiro could see the appeal in becoming a Hunter for that alone.

"Sounds like your senpai was just trying to be nice. I wouldn't be surprised if you were no good at all as a Hunter." Ranta said with a bit of disdain. "So we have an incompetent Hunter as well as a useless thief. It's going to be tough going from here on out."

"As if you're one to talk, Curly." Haruhiro shot back, not liking being assumed to be useless.

"Don't call me that!" Ranta shouted back, the same way he always did when anyone besides Renji called him Curly. He only didn't shout back at Renji because he was too busy pissing himself whenever the overly serious and tough silver haired boy was looking at him. Not that Haruhiro could blame him on that front. Renji had been different from the rest of them, and they all had felt it from the beginning. The only one willing to meet the man's gaze had been Manato.

"Um, excuse me." A small girl wearing a witch's hat said from directly behind Ranta, causing the boy to give a yelp of surprise and jump into the air. The girl's hat had a very broad rim, and since she was at least three or four inches shorter than even Yume, the boys weren't able to see her face. Even so, Haruhiro thought he knew who it was.

"Shihoru?" He asked, checking his prediction. The girl nodded her head.

"You scared me, sneaking up on me like that!" Ranta shouted at the girl, embarrassed at having been surprised in such a manner. "You've become a Mage, but you act more like a Thief."

"I'm sorry. No one noticed me, so I didn't know how to approach everyone…" Shihoru said weakly.

"Can't you just say something normal? Like, 'hey' or 'hi', or just call out our names?" Ranta said crossing his arms, he was quickly calming back down, but Shihoru was still a little frightened.

"I… I couldn't think of anything. I'm truly sorry." The girl said.

"Quit apologizing for everything. You're making me look like the bad guy." Ranta said giving the girl an annoyed look that made her tremble a little.

"If it were between you and Shihoru, I think we all know who the bad guy was. No need to get so pissed off at her." Haruhiro said, putting himself between Ranta and the girl.

"Oh, and you're a good guy then? Shihoru may keep them well hidden, but all you want are her HUGE BOOBS." Ranta said pointing an accusatory finger at Haruhiro.

"Wha… hidden?" Haruhiro stammered, his eyes reflexively going to Shihoru's chest. The girl blushed and quickly wrapped her arm around her chest so that people couldn't look at them. Realizing what he had just done, Haruhiro quickly looked away. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Shihoru replied softly.

"You're hiding them, but you can't fool these eyes! They can see right through padding and pushups!" Ranta shouted loudly.

Haruhiro's eye twitched. "What kind of skill is that?"

"It's not a skill, it's a natural gift!" Ranta responded a little too proudly.

"Shihoru, your boobs are so big." Yume said as she looked at the smaller girl and then at her own small chest, poking at the her little breasts with one finger. "Must be nice to have big boobs. Yume's chest is really flat. It'd be okay if Yume were skinny, but Yume's flabby and fat. It makes Yume sad ~yan."

"It's… it's just because I'm fat, that's all." Shihoru said, acting as though she wanted to shrink in on herself and disappear.

"Really?" Yume said looking closer at the small girl. "Shihoru doesn't look fat at all though."

"My clothes just cover it up." Shihoru insisted.

Ranta snorted. "Other girls must really hate you."

"…Why?" Shihoru said in surprise. No one liked being hated.

"You're not fat, but you insist that you are. Girls hate other girls who say they're fat when it's not true." Ranta said with a shrug, as if this was common knowledge.

"I didn't mean to… I mean, I really am fat." Shihoru said, her shoulders beginning to tremble.

"H…hey. It's nothing to cry about." Ranta said, seeming to start feeling guilty now that the water works were on the way.

"I'm not crying." Shihoru said, though she obviously was.

"It's okay Shihoru, don't cry." Yume said wrapping her arms around Shihoru and bringing her into a tight hug and knocking her funny hat off of her head. "Yume doesn't hate Shihoru. Though Yume doesn't really know Shihoru very well yet either…"

"That… isn't exactly reassuring her, Yume." Haruhiro said with a sigh.

"Oh? Is that so? But Shihoru's body feels really nice. So soft and squishy." Yume said closing her eyes and smiling as she gave Shihoru a tight squeeze and took in a large breath through her nose, as if smelling the smaller girl's hair.

"P…please stop. This is embarrassing." Shihoru squeaked, though Yume didn't seem to hear her. She just kept smiling and kept hugging the girl.

The boys both blushed at the display. Haruhiro watched on in silence while Ranta decided to instead try to encourage them further. Even once Manato arrived and he and Haruhiro begin to talk, the two girls were still there, Yume holding onto the smaller girl while the blushing Shihoru tried to squirm her way free.

* * *

Yume knew that she should have just let Shihoru go at this point. The little mage had already stopped crying, but Yume couldn't help it. She was so soft and warm, and she smelled so nice.

Yume had noticed that ever since she had started to use energy more and more, different things started to smell differently. People in particular seemed to have distinct scents to them, though they were often too weak or too complicated for Yume to describe them properly. Shihoru smelled of a thick layer of leaves resting on the ground during a light rain, capturing the humid air and awakening scent of the Earth, but with also a sort of darkness to it.

Like Yume said, it was hard to put into words, but Shihoru's was one of the strongest that Yume had smelled so far.

Her senpai had a strong smell to him as well, but it had always made Yume feel a little sad whenever she smelled it. For the most part her senpai smelled like swords, if swords could be said to have a distinct scent, but beyond that he had this sort of cold void like smell to him. Like a once stronger furnace that's fire had been allowed to burn out, leaving it cold and empty. It made Yume feel very very sad ~yan.

Yume didn't even notice Manato approach, save for his smell. He smelled like the light of a single candle; dim but hopeful, only with the slight bit of fear that something would snuff that candle out.

The others talked and Ranta announced that he had gone behind everyone's backs and joined the Dread Knight's guild instead of becoming a warrior, just because he thought the name Dread Knight was cool. Apparently he was able to summon a demon to help him out, but he couldn't during the day, because he wasn't strong enough. The demon didn't sound all that helpful anyways, and she doubted it would be as cute as the wolfie she would get one day.

Even though they didn't have a warrior to act as a tank on the front lines, they had to keep moving. Those who don't work don't eat.

Yume would admit that she really couldn't wait to leave the city walls again. It wasn't so much because she couldn't wait to get back to killing more muffins, or whatever they were called, as she still hadn't fully gotten used to that, but rather because she wanted to get back to the wilds.

While out in the trees, she had been able to feel Eldritch's love all around her. It had been like being constantly drawn into the hug of a loving mother, which had filled her with warmth and strength and made Yume feel all tingly inside. While the feeling of love was still there while she was in the city, it was like hearing a voice through water. The bits of it that she could still feel just made her long for its full embrace even more.

But as they were walking towards the city gate, they spotted someone familiar sitting at the side of the road dressed in dirty looking chainmail.

"Moguzo?" Haruhiro said when he saw the large boy.

The man lifted his head, recognizing someone calling out his name. He blinked as he saw all them and his mouth opened up, but then he just closed it again and hung his head back down, as if in shame.

"Huh, Moguzo? Weren't you dragged off by Ragmound to join his party?" Yume said, looking the boy over.

"Not Ragmound, Raghill." Haruhiro said corrected Yume. "Is something wrong? Are you here all alone?" Moguzo only nodded in response.

"I got it!" Ranta said, smacking a closed fist into his open palm. "They threw you out, didn't they? Raghill asked you to join, but when he found out how useless and dim-witted you are, he changed his mind and kicked out out!"

"Ranta…" Haruhiro tried to stop Ranta, but the boy was so stupid. Yume didn't think anything could stop the boy short of an arrow through the throat… maybe she had been around senpai for too long.

"My money." Moguzo said sadly. "He took it all. He told me to hand it all over and that he would show me the ropes… but…"

"That's horrible." Shihoru whispered softly. Yume also felt sorry for Moguzo. Ragmound hadn't been a good senpai and had taken advantage of him.

"I told you so." Ranta huffed, crossing his arms. "I told you not to go with him, but you didn't listen to me did you. I knew all along that he was a heap of rags, a hill of trash."

"Cut it out Ranta, you aren't helping." Haruhiro snapped at the boy. Ranta looked about to say something back, but Manato interrupted him.

"Moguzo, you joined the Warriors Guild, right?" Manato asked, squatting down next to Moguzo.

Moguzo glanced at Manato before looking back at the ground again and nodded. "I joined the Warrior's Guild."

"That's right!" Haruhiro said, clapping his hands together. "Because of Ranta's idiocy, our party's missing a Warrior…"

"You're the idiot, not me!" Ranta shouted in response, though he was ignored.

Haruhiro turned to Shihoru and Yume. "What do you two think?" He asked them.

"I think it would be great." Shihoru said with a sharp nod.

"Yume is lost, what would be good?" Yume asked, not quite sure what Haruhiro was asking them about.

"Our party is missing a Warrior, and Moguzo is a Warrior without a party at the moment. It's perfect, don't you think?" Shihoru explained to Yume.

"Ohh…" Yume said, finally seeing what they were on about. She looked over to Moguzo who was still staring at the ground. "Moguzo, would you like to join Yume's party?"

Moguzo's eyes widened and he looked up at them. "Is that… would it really be okay for me to join?" The man asked. The lost look in his eyes was enough to make Yume nod at him with an affirmative smile without a second thought. It was like a large dopey puppy, especially with the leather cape on his head making it look like he had floppy ears.

"I, for one, would like it if you joined." Manato said encouragingly. "Though it's up to you."

Moguzo still looked unsure of himself, but surprisingly enough Ranta was the one who walked up behind Moguzo and started to try to drag the guy up off the ground and onto his feet. "I suppose there's no choice then! I'll take good care of you, so become a good shield for me! Be prepared to die for me, Moguzo!"

"You are just… unbelievable." Haruhiro said with a sigh. Yume didn't understand a word that had come out of the boy's mouth. She was sure she had just been mishearing things again.

"What? Did I say something weird? Nope. Not at all. It's a Warrior's job to stand in the frontline and tank, right? They're the ones that are supposed to take the brunt of the enemies' attacks. That's why their entire bodies are covered in chainmail." Ranta reasoned.

"Ranta is right." Manato said, not really sounding as upbeat about it. "I'm not saying this to frighten you, but Warriors have it tougher than anyone else. But you can count on all of us to support you and if anything happens, I'll use my Light Magic to heal you."

Moguzo nodded slowly. "I'll do the best I can. But…" Moguzo looked down again and started to rub at his stomach. "I have no money…"

"That's okay. Yume can give you some." Yume said, surprising the others as she started to take her supply bag off of her shoulder.

"You know you don't have much money either, right Yume?" Haruhiro reminded her. "Though if all of us chipped in a little…"

"No, Yume has money. Part of Yume's training was going out beyond the walls with her senpai. Yume and senpai hunted mud muffins, and lemon muffins, and mulls too. Well, senpai killed most of them, but he let Yume have the money when we exchanged in everything that we had got. So Yume's already made a little money." Yume said as she dug around in her bag.

"You hunted what?" Ranta said.

"Mud goblins, lesser goblins, and ghouls." Haruhiro corrected.

"What he said." Yume said, nodding towards Haruhiro.

"How in the world did you get that out of what she said!?" Ranta half shouted, giving Haruhiro a dirty look. "Does your role in life as a straight man give you some kind of super human ability to understand what people are trying to say?"

"Even if it did, I still wouldn't be able to understand you, Ranta." Haruhiro said with a sigh.

"Damn straight you can't! No one can understand me! Even I can't understand me!" Ranta shouted in something like pride.

"Here we go." Yume said proudly as she lifted out the sack of coins that she had gotten from Bri that first day, only the sack was notably fatter than before. She opened the bag up and pulled out two silver coins to give to Moguzo, letting the others see the contents inside the bag as she did so.

Jaws dropped.

"Where in the world did you get all that money?" Ranta said in surprise.

"Senpai killed a lot of muflins." Yume said with an awkward smile as she thought about the group of twenty muflins from the time her senpai had taken to show her how to sneak about and track inside of the Ruin City. It had been a lot harder than in the dense forest to go unnoticed, and Yume had gotten them spotted. Yume knew that her senpai was nice, but he could be really scary at times. The smell from all the blood made Yume feel sick.

"Goblins." Haruhiro corrected Yume again. Yume swore that sooner or later, she would say it right.

"Goblees."

"Yume, just how much money did you make?" Shihoru asked.

"About fifty silver." Yume admitted as she put her sack of coins back away in her pack.

"You mean your senpai just let you have it all? That's more than six times as much money as the training cost." Moguzo said, his jaw hanging open. "I wish I had met him instead of Raghill."

"Senpai said that it wasn't that much money to him and that Yume would need it more." Yume said then she smiled even wider than before and took her sword off her back. "He also gave Yume Kaa-tan." She said, drawing the blade a little so that they could see the surface and edge of the noticeably higher quality weapon. "Isn't it pretty?"

"…I wonder if Barbara-sensei has any former students I could met."

* * *

 **Just a scene from the LN to introduce the main cast of Grimgar a little. This and a bit of their first fight will be the only scenes that are pretty close to the original story line. After that things start to change directions for them as Rin and Shirou start to influence their decisions more and more.**

 **Starting with drawing Mary in before Manato dies. Telling Manato that if he wants to fight at the frontline, then they need to have a second healer around for when he gets hurt to the extent that he can't heal himself.**

 **Next chapter will be skipping to the end of the group's first unsuccessful day of hunting and them going to the barracks and meeting Shirou.**

 **People asked how much Yume's Katana would be worth. Well, a normal steel sword that is in good condition would probably be worth around 30 silver, so I'd say it would probably be worth around 30 gold, since making** **Damascus steel is actually a pretty complex process** **. Not so much as weapons with magical properties, but still more than your average steel weapon. (to give a reference point, the sword they got from Death Spot was supposed to be worth 40 gold.)**


	27. Chapter 26

Manato walked along with the rest of his party towards the barracks that was provided for the Reserve Forces to stay in. While the day had not been profitable, Manato was secretly glad that they didn't run into any goblins. At least, not after that incident with the Pit Rats.

The cat sized little monsters had swarmed them and bit several of his party members deeply before they had managed to drive the quill covered rodents off, requiring him to heal them. Three back to back heal spells. They had drained him of nearly half of his magic reserves.

When he was in Priest's training and learning his art, he had been told that he had quite a bit of talent as a Priest, and that the ability to cast seven [Cure] spells in a single day without collapsing was above average for such a fresh Rookie. Now seven [Cure] spells didn't seem like so much. Especially when it was the boundary between life and death for his party.

He did his best to hide his tiredness and worry from his team, who were already demoralized enough at having been beaten up by a bunch of Pit Rats. "Twenty coppers for two rooms, and if we tighten our belts, twelve coppers a day each for food." Haruhiro said, ticking off their expenses as the four boys went to check out their room. Even though the barracks was free to everyone who had a Crimson Moon Badge, there was only two other occupied rooms at the barracks, so they were told to just pick whatever room them wanted. "If it hadn't been for Yume getting all that money from her senpai, we would only have enough money to last us a week. I guess we should count our blessings."

"I suppose we should." Manato agreed with a chuckle. While Haruhiro wasn't the most cheerful person around, Manato was glad to have someone else who seemed to be grounded around. Having someone else worrying made it feel like he could afford to worry a little less himself. He was already very worried as is.

"Man, this place sucks." Ranta said as they walked into what could generously be called their room. An eight by seven foot shoebox with wooden bunk beds on either side of the wall, along with a very small dresser that doubled as a table top at the foot of each bed. The only kind of bedding their seemed to be hay and the entire thing smelled of rat piss. If all four boys were standing in the room at once, it was awkwardly tight. "No wonder no one lives here. Hey Manato, you sure we can't afford to go somewhere else?"

"It's better if we save all the money we can for equipment and skills. Sorry Ranta. If it makes you feel better, we will probably only be using this place to sleep in, and not spending much time here." Manato said, giving the boy a reassuring smile. He needed to get Ranta, Moguzo and Haruhiro into passable armor as soon as possible. If he couldn't heal them every time they were injured, he had to make sure that they got injured less.

There was a knock on the door. "That's probably the girls, here to bitch about the rooms." Ranta said smugly.

"You mean like you were just doing?" Haruhiro countered.

"Shut up, sleepy eyes!" Ranta shouted back as he pushed past Moguzo to get to the door. "What do you gi…!" Ranta started as he opened the door, looking down slightly as he expected to see the girls standing there. Instead, he found himself having to tilt his head up to look at the man standing in the doorway. Ranta stared up at the man for a second before he staggered away from the doorway in surprise.

The guy was nearly as tall as Moguzo with rusty red hair and golden eyes. His shoulders were broad, and he was rather muscular. But what got Manato the most was the look on his face. The sort of blank, unconcerned look. It reminded him of Renji. Everything about this guy made him think of a red haired Renji.

He had remembered how Renji had judged and weighed each one of them with his eyes when he had chosen his team. It had really made Manato feel sick, the way the guy had acted, pushing his weight around. With this guy seeming so much like Renji, Manato was immediately on guard.

"You're the new party of Rookies, right?" He said, his voice as level as his expression.

"Yes, that's right." Manato responded with a nod. "Can we help you?" The man smiled in a way that didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"I was about to start making dinner. Your group is welcome to join if you want." The man said.

Manato blinked in surprise at the offer. "Oh… that would be nice." He admitted. They had only eaten a little in order to save money, and so all of them were still a little hungry. It just seemed too strange to get the friendly offer from a guy who looked like he should be handing you your ass for looking at him funny. "I hope that we won't be intruding."

"Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes." The guy said before giving them a nod and walking away.

"Well… at least our neighbors are friendly." Haruhiro said with a nervous laugh.

"That guy was too intense for someone who was just saying hey to the neighbors. He didn't even introduce himself." Ranta said with a nervous laugh of his own. "Well, I'm not about to say no to free food."

Moguzo put a hand over his own stomach. "Ah, yeah." He said, nodding in agreement to the prospect of food.

"Well, we should get everything squared away, then we can take him up on his offer. Haruhiro, can you go tell the girls we were all invited to eat." Manato said.

"Sure thing." Haruhiro nodded in agreement.

* * *

There was a little bit of time left before they had been told to meet when the boys arrived at the kitchen to find the red-haired man busying himself with preparing the food. The smell coming from the pot was amazing, and he seemed to be baking fresh bread as well.

As they walked in, the man glanced at them before returning to his work. "It will just be another few minutes. If you could set the table, that would be appreciated. The plates and forks are in the cabinet over there." He said gesturing towards the cabinet. "Including those two girls of yours, there will be eleven of us, if no one else feels like dropping in."

"Oh, sure." Manato said moving to get the dishes and things along with Haruhiro. Moguzo moved closer to the man, glancing at what he was doing with a thoughtful look on his face. Ranta just sat down in a chair to wait for food. "We didn't have a chance to introduce ourselves earlier. I'm Manato, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Haruhiro."

"You can call me Lord Ranta."

"…Moguzo."

The red-haired man nodded, to show he had heard them. "I'm Shirou." He said, before moving the large pot of soup up in order to take it off the flame but keep it warm. Things got awkward again as the boy moved on to grab a few plants and a cutting board, slicing the greens into pieces over the pot.

"So, Shirou. How long have you been around here?" Manato asked him.

"I got back just before your party arrived." Shirou said with a small shrug, not looking up from his work.

"Ah… I meant how long have you been in the Crimson Moon Reserves." Manato clarified.

"Oh. I've been in this world for just under four months. I was a part of the group that came five before yours." Shirou said putting down the cutting board before starting to mix some cheese slices he had prepared into the soup.

"Four months? You're party must really suck if you guys are still living in a dump like this." Ranta huffed.

"Ranta…!" Haruhiro hissed at the curly haired red-head, though Shirou didn't seem to take any offense.

"We've had our ups and downs, but my party is actually pretty well off. It's just easier to remain living here." Shirou said calmly. "It isn't so bad once you fix a few things. By the way, after dinner, I have some furs you can used to line your beds with. Its to hot out for using them as blankets, but they will be more comfortable than just the hay and hard wood."

"That's… very kind of you." Manato said with a bit of wonder. He had seriously misjudged this man. It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover. He seemed so distant and tense on the outside, but he was really actually very nice and helpful.

Shirou nodded as he went to take the bread out of the oven. "There are also some natural pesticides that are planted out front that you can mix into the hay bedding to keep the bugs away. Yume can show you which ones I'm talking about."

"Huh, you know Yume?" Haruhiro asked, picking up on the casual mention of their teammate.

"Hm… she didn't tell you about me?" Shirou said, sounding a little puzzled himself.

"Senpai!" Yume shouted happily as she came in through the door, she ran up and latched onto the man's arm in a hug. "Yume didn't know that senpai was here."

"That is because you didn't scout the area upon arrival." Shirou said, seeming to give the girl a small smile, the closest thing to a real smile the boys had seen out of him so far. "Perhaps I didn't train you well enough."

"Hmph, that's not fair. Yume is in the city and it's been a long day for Yume." The girl pouted.

"Well, you can tell me all about it after we eat. I don't want to have to tell sensei that you choked to death after all the effort we put into training you." Shirou teased, raising his unhindered arm and tapping on a small gong that was placed above the counter. Its low sounds carrying throughout the building.

Something dropped to the ground out of seemingly nowhere, scaring the crap out of Ranta who fell backwards out of his chair. A young girl with bright green hair and a sleepy expression was standing there dressed in the white and blue of a Priest. "Food?" She said in a dazed voice, as if she had just been woken up. She seemed to have been sleeping in the rafters of the kitchen ceiling.

"Where the fuck did she come from!?" Ranta shouted. "Secret Thieves everywhere! And all of them better than Haru!"

"Hey!" Haruhiro shouted indignantly.

"Yes Niko, it is time for dinner. Could you get the others for me?" Shirou said as if nothing was out of the ordinary, and for all Manato knew, this was the ordinary around here.

"'Kay." Niko said before leaving the room at an unexpectedly fast pace.

"I hope you all are hungry. I've made plenty." Shirou said as he filled up a bowl with the strong-smelling soup, handing it to Yume before moving on and filling another one.

* * *

"…and Yume tried to hit them with Kaa-tan, but they just did this thing where they twisted about in the air, and then Yume would miss." Yume said before returning to her soup. Luckily it would be very difficult for her to choke on the soup. That had been the entire reason why Shirou had chosen to prepare soup that day.

"Yes. That little tumbling maneuver that the Pit Rats do is rather effective, isn't it? But it is always just a four-inch twist to the side. If you predict it, then you can still land your hit." Shirou said with a small nod. "It's just another thing you have to get used to. Were you careful to try and memorize their movement patterns? Most of the lessons you will learn as a Hunter will come from the wild itself, so you have to pay careful attention."

"Yes senpai. Yume thinks she was." Yume said with a nodded.

Shirou of course knew exactly how everything had gone down with the Pit Rats. He had been trailing them the entire day without them noticing him. He had a day or two to burn before Rin returned, and so he figured it was best to give the newest group some time to singe their fingers before he gave them an equipment upgrade and any advice. He'd be on hand in case things got out of hand.

"So you are Onii-chan's disciple then?" Megumin said, tilting her head and looking at Yume. "If that's the case, shouldn't you be calling him sensei instead of senpai?"

"Hm? But Yume's sensei was sensei, so Yume called Yume's senpai senpai." Yume said, looking up thoughtfully. "Yume supposes she could call senpai sensei."

"Senpai-sensei! You should call him senpai-sensei!" Megumin shouted happily before descending into giggles.

Realizing what Megumin was saying, Yume laughed as well. "That would just be silly. Senpai-sensei." Yume said, laughing into her hand. "Oh, since senpai-sensei would have been a sensei for less time than sensei has, would that make sensei sensei-senpai?" Megumin started to laugh even harder at the ridiculousness of it all.

"The heck are they saying?" Ranta asked Haruhiro.

"Don't try to listen. Down that path lies only madness." Haruhiro responded, trying desperately to focus on his soup. Something that was helped by it being damn good soup. Honestly, if this Shirou guy opened up a food cart, he could put Dory's Kebabs out of business for sure.

"So you are the senpai that Yume kept mentioning." Manato said, trying to strike up a conversation with Shirou. "I'm not sure I know what I was expecting, but I guess I should count myself surprised. Thank you for taking such good care of my friend, and for feeding us all tonight."

"It's fine." Shirou replied with a small nod. "I'll be making breakfast in the morning tomorrow as well. I won't accept you trying to tough it out without proper nourishment. An army marches on its stomach. You won't be able to perform your best if you are all hungry, and that could cost you lives."

Manato flinched at the casual mention of the possibility of death. "Well then, I suppose we will meet you for breakfast." He said, trying to hide his reaction.

Megumin gave a small squeal from the other side of the table as Yume and grabbed her in a hug. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" The little mage said as she struggled against the Hunter.

"I can't help it. You smell so nice ~yan." Yume said as she rubbed her cheek against the girl's head.

"Like the heat of the sun on your face, mixed with the smell of burning incense." Shirou said with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, exactly like that!" Yume said with a nod.

"What you're smelling is her magic. Megumin uses a very potent form of fire magic." Shirou explained. "This sense of smell would have awakened as you used your energy more and more, am I right?"

"Yes, that's right!" Yume said with another nod.

"Hunters are able to smell magic? I didn't know that." Manato said, rubbing his chin.

"No. Smelling magic isn't a part of Eldritch's blessings, nor is it part of the Hunter's training. However, individuals who are capable of smelling magic often join the Hunter's Guild." Shirou explained. "Most of the Guilds have traits that are associated with them which are not and cannot be taught. Rin, our party leader, believes that these traits are the reason why we end up in the Guilds that we did. Even if we didn't know it ourselves."

Manato thought about it, trying to make sense of what he had been told, but he was jarred out of this thinking when Ranta began to laugh. "Of course! I was destined to join the ranks of the Dread Knights all along!"

"Yeah, of course you were." Haruhiro said with a sigh.

"Shut it, sleepy eyes!" Ranta spat back.

"He might have been. Does he often act like when things happen, that they were what he had intended to happen all along?" Shirou asked, his tone a little too serious for a joke, but the party couldn't help but to smirk anyways.

"Yes, he is very good at taking credit for everything that happens. The sun only rises because it is part of his master plan." Manato said, and Haruhiro snickered at the comment.

"Like hell it does! I want nothing to do with the sun!" The Dread Knight shouted, crossing his arms in defiance. "It's the sunset that is part of my master plan!"

"A flexible perception is important for people who interact with demons. It helps keep them from losing their minds to the demon's own chaotic nature." Shirou explained. "Dread Knights are also rather famous for being a lucky bunch, managing to survive where others wouldn't."

"Yes, that is me, Ranta, the Lucky King!" Ranta said, liking what he was hearing. The rest of them just rolled their eyes.

"W…what about the other Guilds?" Shihoru asked up, her curiosity enough to get her to raise her voice.

Shirou glanced at her and she shrank back down again, still shy as ever. Or maybe she was intimidated by his strong gaze. Manato didn't know which. "Mages need to have a strong bond with an Elemental type in order to use their magic. It is actually a pretty rare trait, and yet all of the people who try to enter the Mages Guild as their first choice all have it. You would have already been tested for your affinities, correct?" Shirou said before sniffing at the air. "You're strong with shadow magic, with a very weak bond to flash and cloud types. Am I right?"

"Um… yes, that's right." Shihoru said weakly a slight blush on her face from being 'smelled' by the man.

"Oh, so the shy busty one is closer to the darkness is she." Ranta said with a large grin. "Sounds like the two of us have more in common than I thought."

"I… I'm nothing like you!" She snapped angrily at him.

"Actually, shadow magic is closer in nature to light magic than the demonic magic Dread Knights use, since light is needed in order to cast a shadow." Shirou corrected him.

"You're making shit up!" Ranta shouted accusingly.

"As for the other Guilds, many Thieves have a skill called [Gleaming Line]. It's supposed to be a big secret for their Guild, even though it isn't really taught by them, so I can't really tell you much about it. The best way I can describe it is as a sort of clairvoyant trance that occasional can assist in battle. You can ask Barbara about it if you want to know the details." Shirou said, looking at Haruhiro.

"Huh, how do you know Barbara is my mentor?" Haruhiro asked in surprise.

Shirou gave him a bit of a smirk and tapped his nose. "I can still smell her perfume on you. She has a tendency to be very… physical with her students." Haruhiro blushed and raised his arm, sniffing it a little. Manato couldn't help but to laugh. "The Warrior's Guild members tend to have what Rin has dubbed [Battle Continuation]. Even if fatally injured, they will just keep fighting until they are either completely dead, or their enemy is."

"Hey, not bad big guy." Ranta said, giving Moguzo a slap on the shoulder. Moguzo looked unsure how to take the comment about how he would probably die fighting. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

"What about Priests and Paladins?" Manato asked out of curiosity.

"Paladins… We never really did figure that one out. We have suspicions, but there isn't the same kind of proof as with the others." Shirou said, a little slower than before. His brow creased, as if he was trying to think how to word things. "As for Priests, that one… Well, we don't know that one either." He then tried to force a smile again. "I suppose you could say it is a very 'secret' secret trait."

Manato was confused. He was obviously lying about not knowing what trait helped to define a Priest, but Manato couldn't figure out why he was lying. What trait could be so bad that he would hide it. He revealed the Warriors so called [Battle Continuation] trait, and the secretive [Gleaming Line] of the Thieves. So what could make him hesitate about talking about it.

Perhaps he should ask his Archpriest about it… or not. The old man would probably yell at him for being full of himself if he asked if there was something that made him destined to be a Priest.


	28. Chapter 27

Yume waited in the trees with bow and arrow in hand and waiting for the signal once Haru and Ranta were in position to fire on the mud gob they found by a stream. The others were further back, as Moguzo was covered in jingling chainmail that would give him away in an instant and Manato was acting as a guard for Shihoru until they could get into position.

Yume was pretty sure that she could have hit the gob with an arrow while it was unaware, but she had seen the logic in making sure it couldn't escape by letting the others get as close as possible before they were noticed.

Yume took a deep breath, saying a little prayer to Eldritch to help keep them safe and let their hunt go unnoticed by others. She had her bow in hand, an arrow ready, and Kaa-tan drawn, waiting on the ground next to her for is a melee started and she wouldn't be able to fire her arrows without a fear of hitting allies.

While Kaa-tan was a much more natural weapon for Yume to wield, it did have its drawbacks. That is to say that drawing it from her back was a pain. She couldn't have the longer weapon dangling from her waist as it would smack up against things as she tried to move around quietly, but from the position on her back, it was impossible to draw.

Her senpai had instructed her to always draw her weapon before ambush, and if she was taken by surprise, to use the machete at her waist instead of struggling with getting her katana off her back and draw it. He had shown her how to get the scabbard on her shoulder in such a way that she could remove it quicker if necessary without it getting in the way while she moved around. But even so, it took three seconds to draw Kaa-tan, while it took only a half a second to draw her machete.

How many times did senpai make her practice drawing her weapons? It must have been at least a hundred. Hours of doing nothing but practicing pulling out her katana and machete.

Yume wondered what this gob was doing by the stream. It hadn't been gathering water or anything. It had just been kneeling at the edge of the stream, slapping the water with its hands on occasion. It had been there for entire minutes as the party discussed how to approach it and prepare to take it out. What in the world was it doing?

Her eyes went from the gob to Haru and Ranta were moving through the bushes with weapons drawn. If her senpai had seen them, he would have given them a sharp talking to about what sneaking was. Yume supposed that Haru's entire Thief's training had taken place inside of the city, so he wasn't too good with dealing with the awkward terrain and thick brush, and Ranta had never had any stealth training at all.

Yume was surprised that the gob hadn't heard them already, even if they were still a good fifty feet away from the monster. Forget how much they were brushing up against bushes, their breathing was so heavy that it was deafening. They were far more nervous than Yume had been during her first hunt. Perhaps that was because she hadn't been given time to get tense. The entire preparations for that sneak attack had been only thirty seconds or so, where this was much slower.

Would they all freeze up the way Yume once did? It would be more dangerous for them to do that at close range. Yume had been far away from the enemy when she had froze up, and she had been with senpai. Right now, the most experienced person in their party was Yume with two days experience.

If the others froze up, it would be up to Yume to make sure that nothing bad happened because of it. She wasn't the same confused girl she was when she shot that first arrow. She might feel the sting of guilt, but it would not stop her from doing what she had to.

Focus on your form, let it keep you grounded in reality. That's what her senpai told her to do. So that is why Yume would do. Until she received the signal to take her shot, she would repeat the steps her senpai had taught her in her mind and have that be her protection against the fear.

But the signal never came.

Ranta let out what he must have thought was an intimidating war cry as she stood up and started to run as best he could through the bushes towards the gob, who instantly jumped to its feet and started trying to make a break for it.

"Stupid Ranta!" Yume shouted as she quickly drew her arrow and took a shot. However, she wasn't an expert on hitting moving targets. Slow and unaware enemies were easy, but once they started running around on their janky legs, everything became so much harder. Luckily the arrow passed right in front of the gob, startling it into slowing down.

Yume drew another arrow with efficiency born from practice and eight seconds after the first arrow had been shot, she was shooting her second. It wasn't as fast as her senpai, who could fire at an astonishing rate of an arrow every second, but she was assured that she was as good as any average bowman when it came to shot speed. Besides, she could only carry around thirty arrows in her one quiver. Unless she wanted to be like senpai and walk around with enough arrows for half a dozen Hunters, her shot speed wouldn't be that big of a problem.

Yume fired the second arrow, but the gob had spotted her and was ducking and jumping around in an almost random manner, making it difficult to hit. The arrow flew through the air where the gob's chest had been a moment before.

Yume was drawing her third arrow when Ranta caught up to the gob as started to swing wildly at it with his long sword, not bothering to plant his feet carefully and depending on the long reach of his sword to give him an advantage against his smaller and weaker opponent. Yume growled a little. The idiot was in close now, and she couldn't take a shot without risking that the boy might accidently dart in front of it and get hit.

She briefly considered firing the arrow anyways. After all, it was just Ranta. But her sensei would be disappointed in her if he ever found out she took a shot while her teammate was in the line of fire. Her senpai would probably scold her for the lack of necessity to take such an action. With six of them and one gob, it was unlikely that they would have problems and therefore it was unnecessary to take risky measures. If there had been five or even six gobs though… Well that would have been a different story.

As the other team members all started to close in on the gob, Yume tossed aside her bow and grabbed Kaa-tan, before moving quickly down the slopes towards the others.

Ranta's lack of footing ended up costing him as the gob gained an opening and slashed him across his thigh. The red headed boy gave a cry of pain and staggered back, the gob attempting to press advantage only to be blocked by Manato, who got it in the chest with his staff, pushing the creature back. While Manato healed Ranta's injury, Moguzo and Haru kept the monster occupied, until a stray [Magic Missile] from Shihoru hit the ground in front of Moguzo, shocking the boy into a short retreat.

"Sorry!" Shihoru apologized. She had been casting magic with her eyes closed again.

The gob was about to try to run through the gap left by Moguzo when Haru managed to score his first hit, a swiping strike aimed for the lower section of the gob's arm. Yume had been told by her senpai that it was often best to aim for the enemy's arms, as they are the most exposed part of the body when the enemy is trying to attack and injuring the arms could eliminate any threat from the monster. Haru's sensei must have told him something similar. Sadly, the injury wasn't in the right spot, hitting more bone than muscle, leaving the gob bleeding but not stopped.

For his efforts, Haru was attacked back and had to use his left arm to shield his body, receiving large cuts on it.

Luckily for Haru, escape was still the chief objective on the gob's mind. Rather than trying to finish off the Thief, it tried to run again, only for Yume to cut it off, using a large sweep of Kaa-tan to dissuade its advance as she planted her own feet and took a chance to catch her breath. Ranta and Moguzo both took up positions around the gob and after Manato healed Haru, the two of them joined in surrounding the monster.

Yume was panting slightly from having just ran fifty meters across rough terrain while holding a katana, but she was quickly catching her breath and her arms were still more or less steady. Even as the gob started to shriek out its defiance, challenging them to attack and promising that it wouldn't go down alone, Yume was not impressed. She had heard plenty of gob's screams while hunting with her senpai, and they lost value after the three or four times. Now, rather than being scary, they just hurt the ears.

Still, the others shifted back, unwillingness and fear clear in their eyes. They had never killed before. They had never looked desperation in the face before. They were panting worse than Yume and most of them were trembling.

Yume felt the urge to strike quickly but held herself back. She needed to regain her breath first. They had the gob surrounded, which meant she didn't need to hurry. If the gob tried to commit to attacking one of the others, she could stop it and cut it down.

What she wasn't expecting was for Ranta to start shouting at all of them. "Now's not the time to be scared, dammit!" The red-head was still trembling, but he made a show of licking his lips and forced a grin on to his face. "It's kill or be killed, so I'm going to kill it and get my Vice!"

Ranta rushed forward, trying to slash of the gob, but his overhand swing missed and he left himself open to a counter attack. Manato was the first to interfere, since he had been standing right beside Ranta.

"Don't be careless!" He shouted, striking the gob in the head with his staff, hard enough to split open the skin, causing blood to splatter out. The gob didn't care in the slightest, it just kept pushing through, this time trying to slash at Manato.

Yume jumped in this time, using Kaa-tan to swat at the gob's knife, stopping it from reaching the Priest. She then went on the offensive, performing a sequence of long thrusts coupled with downward slices in order to push the gob backwards without having to compromise her own footing. She was using the length of Kaa-tan to her advantage in the way that senpai had showed her. She broke off when the gob managed to block one of her strikes, losing her the forward advantage. The attack was taken over by Moguzo who swung at the gob's back side, which only barely missed the creature.

Another magic missile came in, this one hitting its mark and knocking the gob to the ground. "I hit it." Shihoru said, sounding more surprised than celebratory. It was too early to celebrate anyways.

The gob was scrabbling up to its feet within the second and looked around the group before spotting the largest opening. The one that Haru was currently the only one guarding.

Haru saw the gob's look and took up a stance, ready for the gob to lung at him, but rather than the normal attack that Haru was preparing for, the gob chucked its knife right at him.

Haru was too surprised. He hadn't expected it and didn't know how to counter. The knife was flipping through the air towards him. But before it hit, an arrow came out of nowhere and knocked the knife off course, causing it to miss Haru entirely. Haru's eyes followed the knife, unable to understand what had just happened.

The gob didn't stop though. It lunged itself over at Haru, knocking him to the ground and wrapping his hands around Haru's throat. Haru gasped, struggling for breath as the gob leaned over him. Haru brought up his knife and stabbed the gob in the throat. The gob let go of Haru's neck and straightened upwards as Yume slashed at its back and Ranta stabbed it straight through the chest.

The gob was still moving about, trying to scream around the dagger that was still in its throat. It didn't stop until Moguzo dropped his massive sword down on its head, denting in its helmet. After that, the gob slouched forward onto Haru as the Thief stared up at the sky with wide eyes, his face covered in the gob's blood. He looked like he was on the verge of throwing up.

* * *

Haruhiro was finding it very difficult to breath, even though the goblin was no longer strangling him. The stench of the blackish red blood was making him feel like that lunch that Shirou-senpai had been so kind as to give them was about to make a return appearance.

"Haruhiro, are you okay?" Manato asked as he pushed the gob's body off Haruhiro. Haruhiro couldn't answer, breathing was so hard. "It's nails got your throat bad. Stay still." Manato made his prayer and formed the six-pointed star in the air. "[Cure]."

Haruhiro waited for his breathing to become easier, but it didn't. Whatever Manato fixed, it hadn't been the real problem. Beside them, Ranta was shouting angrily about Moguzo getting the killing blow and how he wouldn't get his Vice, though the shouting sounded like it was happening a far distance away.

"He's fine. He's just in shock." A familiar, slightly detached voice said, cutting through Haruhiro's foggy mind. Haruhiro turned his head to see Shirou-senpai walking towards them. Or, he thought it was Shirou-senpai. The older boy was dressed in red scaled hide armor and had more weaponry strapped to his body that Haruhiro's entire party combined. He looked as if he had come prepared to kill every single goblin in the entire forest. "You should probably help him get away from the blood. Its smell is filling his lungs right now."

"Yes, senpai." Yume said, quickly making to help Haruhiro up.

"You… you were following us?" Manato said, as surprised as Haruhiro was to see Shirou-senpai there.

"Yes. I followed you all yesterday as well." Shirou-senpai said. "Bad things tend to happen to Trainees on their first weeks. Just wanted to make sure you would all be fine."

"I suppose I should thank you. Your timely interference probably said Haruhiro's life." Manato said, bowing to show his thanks.

"No. The knife would had missed his vitals and only punctured an artery. He would have lived, but he would likely have gone unconscious from blood loss by the time you had healed him." Shirou-senpai explained. "By the way, a word of advice, don't stand around talking by a goblin corpse unless you know for sure it is dead."

"FUCK!" Ranta screamed as the goblin had pulled Haruhiro's knife out of its own neck and stabbed him in the leg with it. The Dread Knight responded by slamming his sword directly into the goblin's grinning face before letting go of his long sword to collapse to the ground grabbing his injured leg. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He said as Manato and Moguzo ran over to help him, the Warrior carefully removed the knife as Manato cast his [Cure] spell for a fourth time. "The Vice is mine!" Ranta said through gritted teeth, and huge smile on his face, even as his body paled and he started to shake again.

"You shouldn't spend too long around a battle ground after you are finished. The noise will attract others, and if one of the goblins' scouts spots you and tells a few of their roaming parties how to find you, then you might find yourselves being the ones hunted." Shirou-senpai said. "You did pretty well for you first hunt, but just so you know, your party is heading for disaster if you continue like this. Changes will need to be made."

"What… what do you mean by that?" Shihoru asked, as she hugged her staff close.

"A conversation for another place. Grab your things and we will head back to town." Shirou-senpai said, turning and walking away, making it very clear that he wouldn't be talking to them there.

"So what, is these all we are getting from today?" Ranta grumbled as he pulled up a necklace from the goblin's neck. On it was a single piece of damaged silver and a black fang of some kind.

"I'll cook you another meal to make it up to you!" Shirou-senpai shouted back at them from across the clearing.

Manato chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "I think I can live with that." He said before moving to follow the man. For some reason, Haruhiro thought that Manato looked relieved, though he couldn't understand why. Going back so early meant they'd be making so little money.

Perhaps it was just his imagination.


	29. Chapter 28

Shirou lead the party of rookies back to the barracks, brewed them a pot of tea and put out some snacks made mostly of dried fruits. Seeming to sense that food was about, Niko joined them, though she had yet to say anything to any of them.

Manato was grateful. He had expended even more energy than he had the day before. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to handle another fight. While he was skilled with his staff and could probably have held his own against another goblin, as a healer his stamina was far more limited. Four of his seven [Cure] spells had been spent in that single fight against one lone goblin. He would need to improve himself somehow, either help insure that his party didn't get so injured by helping with the fighting, or by increasing the number of times he could heal them in one day.

"Are you going start talking about what you meant before, or not!?" Ranta demanded. Though his words were strong, he was still visibly shaken. Everyone was on edge, save for Yume, and Shirou making them all wait to hear what he meant wasn't helping.

"There are many places where your party needs to improve. You all need to learn how to position yourselves so that you don't put your bodies between your ranged supporters and your enemies. Because of where you were standing, Yume was left unable to take any more shots once the melee started, forcing her to switch to melee herself." Shirou said calmly.

"Who cares, she couldn't shoot the thing anyways." Ranta said with a shrug.

Yume scowled at him. "Yume would have been able to hit it just fine is stupid Ranta didn't ruin our surprise attack!" She snapped at him. "Hitting a moving target is hard, and Yume hasn't had much practice with doing it."

"So in other words your useless. I can't believe you never had this boobless girl practice with moving targets." Ranta scoffed.

Yume stood up from her seat and three seconds later she had her bow in hand with an arrow notched and pulled back. "Ranta is right. Yume does need practice with moving targets. Why doesn't Ranta start running."

"H…hey! That's not funny!" Ranta said, backing away from the girl and raising his hands up in surrender. "I didn't mean anything by it! Can't you take a joke!"

"Yume, that's enough." Shirou said, telling the girl to back down.

"But senpai, Yume doesn't like it when Ranta calls her boobless. It hurts her feelings ~yan." Yume whimpered, as she lowered her bow, much to Ranta's relief.

"I don't care. I won't have you killing people in my kitchen. Take it outside if you must." Shirou said, his tone a little too serious.

"What!? Your only problem with her killing me is that it is in this stupid kitchen!?" Ranta shouted in shock.

Shirou stopped moving for a second and he slowly looked over at Ranta. Everyone paled as an indescribable feeling washed over them. Shirou's already tall six feet seemed to inflate until he was the size of a mountain, and his gold eyes shone with cold fire. "Let me make one thing clear. This is my kitchen, and I will not have you dirtying it with your blood. Understood?"

"Pay your respects to the Master of the Kitchen." Niko said in a voice fitting a Priestess, getting to her knees and bowing down before Shirou.

"I understand Master. I will not dirty the Master's kitchen with my worthless blood." Ranta said quickly, joining Niko in bowing before Shirou. In the back of Manato's mind was a part of him that wanted to laugh at how a Priest and Dread Knight were setting aside their differences and worshipping a common idol. But that part of him was far too scared to let itself be known on the surface. Though he seemed to be doing much better than his teammates.

Then, just like that, the feeling vanished as Shirou returned to his cooking. "See that you don't."

"What… just happened?" Moguzo's slow and dazed voice asked.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know." Haruhiro replied, shaking his head.

"I… I thought I heard the growl… the growl of a wolf." Shihoru stammered, looking as though she was about to pass out. Yume put her arms around the other girl.

"Just ignore it." Yume said as she comforted the little Mage.

"Haruhiro needs to become more familiar with sneaking around in the forest and moving into enemy blind spots. Shihoru has to stop closing her eyes when she casts a spell. Moguzo hesitates too much about approaching the enemy. All of these things and more are problems with how your team functions. However they can all be fixed with experience and a little team training." Shirou said as he wrapped some ground pork into warm dough while a steam cooker was slowly being prepped over the fireplace. "But more important than any of that, your solo Priest should not be occupying the frontline."

"What? But Manato is our best fighter. He's really good with that staff." Haruhiro said, shocked at Shirou's suggestion that Manato didn't belong on the frontline.

"True, he is skilled for a Rookie. However he isn't skilled enough to be a frontline Priest." Shirou said with a shake of his head. "Tell me Manato, did your mentor ever tell you what the death rates are like for Priests?" Manato swallowed slightly and nodded his head in response.

"Death rates?" Shihoru whispered, her eyes widening in fear.

"All monsters with even the slightest bit of intelligence know exactly what a Priest is. They know that so long as a party has a Priest, they can keep fighting after injures. Both Ranta and Haruhiro should have been knocked out of that fight fairly early on and were only able to continue fighting at full strength because they had a healer." Shirou started to explain. "Because of this, monsters always target the healer first whenever possible. They will be the target of every slash, and every arrow. This is why the survival rate of Priests during their first year is one sixth the rate of the other Guilds. This is why there are barely enough Priests to go around, even though the Priests guild gets the second to most recruits out of all the Guilds."

"I… didn't know that." Moguzo said in shock. He had thought that the Warrior's Guild was supposed to be the rough one, but at least the Warriors Guild have effective armor.

"Are there really no frontline Priests?" Haruhiro asked his normally half lidded eyes widened in shock.

"There are only three surviving frontline Priests who have been a part of the Crimson Moon Reserves for more than a year, and all three of them were originally extremely skilled Warriors with years of frontline experience, and even they have to be careful." Shirou continued. "The problem lies in the fact that if the Priest becomes too severely injured, they can no longer perform the magic required to heal themselves. Even if one of you got slashed across the throat, if Manato reached you in time, you would have a good chance of making it out alive. However, if he was to take a stab to the gut, or to his arms and couldn't complete the words or hand signs needed to perform his spells, he would be as good as dead."

Manato's shoulders slouched as he heard Shirou's explanations. "Even if you say all this, its not like I have much of a choice. They need my help." Manato said a little guiltily. All the others looked on in shock before their eyes also fell, equally guilty looks on their faces. This was only a problem because the rest of the party was weak.

"…If you are going to continue to fight on the frontline, then there are a few things you will need to do." Shirou said, surprising the boy. "First and foremost, you must never leave the city dressed as a Priest. You might as well paint a bullseye on your back. Wear the white and blue in the city if you want, but outside hide what you are. I will provide you some light armor, but you will need to buy the leathers to wear under it. Moguzo should know which ones you will need. If you require money for it, I can provide you with that as well. Second, focus more on avoiding damage rather than dishing it out. And finally, you will need to find your party a second Priest. One who can assist in the event that you yourself are injured."

"But… can we really find another Priest who would join us?" Moguzo said, his face creasing with thought. "I thought you said there weren't enough Priests to go around."

"I think I might know someone. She's a bit of a drifter and never stays in one party for long. If she is between jobs right now, she'd probably be willing to join up with your group." Shirou said as he finished making the last of his dumplings. "It's up to you though."

"No harm in trying." Manato said, trying to sound more confident than he really was.

"I'll ask Tokimune to get me into contact with her and I can meet her tomorrow night to see if she is interested." Shirou said with a nod.

"Hey wait a second! Why is Manato the only one getting armor!?" Ranta objected.

"Shut up. Shirou-senpai is already being generous enough." Haruhiro snapped at Ranta.

"Actually, I will provide all of you with armor. Just give me a second." He said as he deposited all of the dumplings he had prepared into the larger steamer and adding a little more water, causing the amount of steam to increase. "They will need around forty minutes to finish. That should be enough time for you all to pick out what you need."

"Is forty minutes really enough time to go to the market?" Yume asked.

"We aren't going to the market." Shirou corrected her.

"The Iron Keep." Niko said quietly.

"The Iron Keep?" Ranta repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Please don't call it that."

* * *

"What the actual crap!?" Ranta shouted as Shirou unlocked and opened up the shed in the back of the barracks to reveal a treasure trove of armor and weapons. In the center of the room was a small anvil and what looked like an improvised fire pit.

"I've made a habit out of collecting any functional weapon or piece of armor off of the enemies I kill." Shirou said as he gestured towards eight large barrels full of swords. "Most of the swords are in the barrels, knives and bows are on the shelves, and spears and staves are in the back behind the tool cabinet. There are some hammers, shields and maces, but you probably don't want those. Pick whatever you like and then I'll show you the armor I've been preparing."

The team looked unsure of themselves at first but then Ranta went over to one of the barrels and started to dig through it searching for a long sword that would suit him. After that they went in one by one to take a look at things until only Shirou, Niko and Shihoru weren't checking out the stock, since Shihoru was a Mage, there was little she could do in terms of equipment to improve herself.

"Did you… did your party really kill all of this yourselves?" Shihoru asked him, a bit of awe in her voice.

"No." Niko said, shaking her head. "It was all Shirou."

"Wait, you killed all of it yourself?" Haruhiro said his eyes widening more and more as he looked over the impressive collection of knives.

"Yume not surprised." Yume said as she picked up one of the bows and tried to string it. "Senpai is really strong."

"He was able to shoot that knife out of midair." Manato said comparing one metal staff to the one he had received from the Priests guild before eyeing one of the spears. "I can't even imagine the level of skill required to do such a thing."

"You've only been fighting for four months. Just how many monsters have you killed?" Haruhiro asked.

"About… four thousand…ish." Shirou said, not sounding too sure himself. He knew he averaged around sixty to eighty on his days off with Kuro... and then there were the hoards that Megumin kept summoning with her explosions... and those times that Rin decided to trip all of the Kobold's alarms so she could see how they would react... so it was actually probably closer to the five thousands range. The number of times the Orcs had to send reinforcements to help bolster their numbers, it was amazing they hadn't just given up on Fort Dead Head all together. Honestly, he didn't know where they all came from, or why they thought that the fort was so valuable. Between him and the other members of Typhoon Rocks, they had slaughtered two or three whole legions worth of Orcs in those four months… and stolen quite a lot of beer. "I didn't take equipment from all of them… and I don't still have all the equipment I ever took. Some of it has broken and I gave things away to other rookie teams over the months."

"Four thousand… that's insane." Manato couldn't help but say aloud. The six of them had barely taken out one measly goblin in two days, and Shirou had killed thousands of monsters in just four short months.

"I suppose. I never really thought about it." Shirou said, looking away from them.

"This will do!" Ranta said as he practiced waving about a long sword he had found. It was broader towards the end and didn't end in so much a tip as a jagged peak. The metal was a darker color, marking the blade as wrought iron instead of steel, and kobold made. Shirou immediately registered it as one of the blades he had taken from a Kobold fighter. A high-quality blade, considering the second-rate material used and the lack of magic would mean that Ranta would have to routinely sharpen it. Though Ranta probably didn't know any of that. Knowing him he only picked it because it looked cool.

Both Haruhiro and Mozugo picked steel weapons. The dagger Haruhiro picked was of a similar size and make to the double-edged dagger he was using before, only in much better condition. The great sword that Mozugo picked was a large single edged weapon with more weight towards the tip, the kind preferred by the Orc Berserkers. Yume picked out a short bow similar to her old one, though in much better condition and made from rosewood instead of oak. While oak was a perfectly good material for a bow, rosewood was its superior, though human craftsmen had yet to learn that fact. Shirou wondered if Yume could feel the difference in the woods or if she just liked the deeper colorings better.

Finally, Manato took up a bronze spear, one slightly longer than his old staff. "I'd like to see a goblin shrug off a hit from this." Manato said, giving the weapon an experimental swing. He must have taken the earlier goblin just ignoring the bash he delivered to its skull rather personally and chose a bladed weapon to make sure that such a thing didn't happen again. Spears were rarely used by members of the Crimson Moon Reserve, but they were still good weapons.

"Since you've all picked out your weapons, Ranta, Moguzo, here are some pieces of armor I've got for you." Shirou said, lifting a pair of helmets, gauntlets and some kind of metal skirts that Manato didn't know the name for. "These were all pieces of Orc armor, so I had to resize them a bit. Tell me if anything doesn't fit right."

He resized them? Did he mean he knew how to use a forge too?

The two boys looked surprised, but they came forward to try the armor pieces on. "It fits." Moguzo said, rather surprised as he got the helmet on his head. "It fits really well. How'd you know what size to make it?"

"I'm pretty good at eyeballing things when it comes to weapons and armor." Shirou said with a soft chuckle, as if he had made a joke.

"This thing looks so sick." Ranta said with a wide grin. The helmet he had been given was black with a face mask to it that looked like a skull, due in part to the empty spots where the Orc's tusks would normally be jutting out. "A skull helm for a worshipper of Skulheill! It's like it was meant to be!" He said as he shoved the thing down on his head and closed the mask shut.

"At least we don't have to look at his face anymore." Shihoru mumbled, getting a snort out of Haruhiro and Yume. Their shy little Mage wasn't so shy about how much she disliked Ranta.

"Alright, get your stuff put away and then we will have dinner. Tomorrow I'll start your training." Shirou said as he made his way towards the door.

"Training?" Manato said in surprise.

"Your teamwork training. Up until now, all of your training has been centered around individual skills, but if you want to survive out in the field, you are going to need to learn to work properly together." Shirou said. "It will just be a few exercises about positioning and movement."

"Oh, well that doesn't seem to bad."

* * *

 **Generic Orc 1: The Tarks sure have been raiding our forts a lot lately.**

 **Generic Orc 2: I know, but they don't really seem interested in taking the fort.**

 **Generic Orc 1: I just hope they don't come during our shift.**

 **Generic Orc 2: I now rig... wait... do you hear that?**

 _ **Singing:**_

 _ **We are here to drink your beer**_  
 _ **And steal your rum at a point of a gun**_  
 _ **Your alcohol to us will fall**_  
 _ **'Cause we are here to drink your beer**_

 **Generic Orc 1: Oh lord, help us.**


	30. Chapter 29

Manato never thought he would miss his Archpriest yelling at him. Sure the man had a set of lungs that could shake the rafters, but at least his training had been relatively easy. Manato never thought anything could make his experiences when training to be a Priest relatively easy.

"Get back up." Shirou told them as they lay on the ground panting. "If you must pant, then at least do it on your feet. Do you think that your enemies would give you the opportunity to rest on the ground like this?"

"I can't… feel my arms…" Moguzo panted.

"I can't feel… my everything…" Ranta said, trying to one up the big guy.

"Lucky your… everything then." Manato added his own comment. His everything hurt.

Shirou had said that it would be an exercise in positioning and coordinated movements, and that had been exactly how it started. He had given them all detailed explanations of how to move about the battlefield and to obscure an enemies path without getting in the way of their support units or stumbling over each other. Then he told them to practice. He gave them all blunted weapons and told them to attack him while Yume and Shihoru took shoots at him and try to not get in their way while limiting his movements.

That was where things started to go downhill for the group.

Shirou corrected them. He corrected their every move, their ever breath, their every glance around the field. He corrected them with a glancing strike and a sharp word delivered in his half-hearted tones. The individual glancing blows hadn't hurt much at first, but they started to stack up. Even with all six of them working together, they couldn't land a single glancing blow on the man, if he even was a man and not some kind of robot… whatever a robot was. The guy didn't have a drop of sweat on him after four hours.

Yume had long run out of arrows and went to help with a sword, and Shihoru was trying to meditate under stress in order to regain enough stamina to squeeze out more spells.

"Must… win… wolfy." Yume stammered as she attempted to push herself back up only to collapse back to the ground. Shirou had promised her that if they managed to land a single blow on him, that he would get her an animal companion. It did not look like that was going to happen. Motivated as she was, she was too weak to get back to her feet.

"I see. Fine then, a ten-minute break. Niko, you can tend to them now." Shirou said as he started to walk away.

"Should I heal them this time?" The green haired Priest girl asked.

"No, they are still only bruised. A [Restoration] spell for there stamina will be enough." Shirou said dismissively.

"You're a monster." Ranta said weakly.

"Good. Because that is what you are training to fight." Shirou said with a small smirk. "If you would prefer, Niko could heal your bruises but not your stamina and we can continue like that. Both spells draw from the same pool of energy. Choose one or the other, you can't have both. Besides, if you use healing magic to repair your bodies your muscles won't… grow at all." He said giving a tired yawn.

"Did… Did he just yawn?" Haruhiro asked, not quite believing his ears.

"Sorry. I stayed up all last night and the night before working on the armor sets for you. I should be done by… tomorrow morning with one more all-nighter." Shirou said before walking towards the kitchen. "I'm going to make some tea. Anyone else want some?"

"Yume would like some." Yume half whimpered as her senpai walked away.

"Told you that you guys would never be able to lay a finger on Onii-chan." Megumin teased them as Niko started to restore their stamina one by one.

"I will never call my sensei a sadist again." Haruhiro said with a tired sigh.

"Me neither." The other three boys joined in a chorus.

"Are you all going to be alright?" Shihoru asked them. Tired as she was from her spells, she was still in the best shape out of all of them.

"I think so." Manato said, giving the girl his best reassuring smile. Considering how she immediately looked away in embarrassment, he thought the smile must have looked as bad as he felt.

"Yume will be fine. Senpai is really demanding, but he wasn't trying to hurt us bad." Yume said, after receiving her treatment. She pushed herself up into a sitting position before looking around on the ground. "Yume should retrieve her arrows before he gets back."

"Why bother, we aren't getting anywhere with this. I say we throw in the towel." Ranta suggested.

"No! What about my wolfy!?" Yume cried, her bottom lip trembling.

"Just wait until you earn the money for it yourself. It can't take that long." Ranta said. "Let's face it, we aren't going to beat him. He's insanely strong."

"The point was never to beat him, it was to get stronger ourselves." Manato reminded the Dread Knight. "I'm as sore as you are, but you have to admit, he has given us a lot of good pointers. Even in this short amount of time, there has been noticeable improvement." Manato would try to keep morale up. It was all he was really good for at the moment, a friendly smile and encouraging words. His entire body was screaming at him. Shirou had seen fit to remind Manato of all of the vitals he was not protecting and that wouldn't be covered with armor by striking him near them whenever he saw an opening.

Manato wouldn't complain though… not much anyways… so long as his team grew stronger and he wouldn't have to worry about his own limitations as much.

"How in the world does anyone get that good in just four months?" Haruhiro asked no one in particular.

"He didn't. Shirou's always been like that." Sara told them. "From the very first day, he was unbelievably strong. Even now, the more I train and the stronger I get, the more I realize just how far ahead of me he really is. He has a talent for weapons that set him apart from the rest of us."

"Must be nice to have someone like that in your party." Ranta said as lay on the ground, trying to conserve his strength.

"I… suppose." Sara's eyes dropped a little. "Shirou has saved all of our lives from time to time, we haven't had to worry about money since the first week, and even if we make mistakes he is there to fix everything. Still, it… it makes you feel rather insignificant. Having people like him and Rin around, who seem strong enough to handle the entire Frontier by themselves. Makes you wonder sometimes why you even try."

"We just need to grow stronger!" Megumin said in response to Sara's uncomfortable statement. "Once I grow a little more and learn [Explosion] then I can help Onii-chan and Rin-sama blast away all the monsters!"

Sara smiled at the small Mage and patted her head. "That might work for you, but the Paladin's Guild doesn't have any super spells that I can learn." Sara said, before turning back to the newer Rookies. "Our original party was made up of twelve people, but seven of them left because being on a team with Shirou and Rin made them feel irrelevant. Only Megumin, Niko and I stayed behind."

"No point in leaving. So long as I stay with Shirou and Rin, I wouldn't be in any real danger, and I get to eat good food too, so I'm happy enough being next to useless." Niko said as she finished restoring Moguzo's stamina, giving the large boy enough strength to push his own body off the floor. "Um… too many [Restoration] spells. Niko go to sleep now." With her job done, Niko flopped down on the grass, her arms spread eagle and started to snore gently.

"She's tapped out already?" Shihoru said, a little surprised. She could cast around forty [Mystic Missiles] before being too exhausted to continue, but Niko, who was more experienced than her, had only cast fifteen spells that day and was already dead tired. "Is [Restoration] a higher-level spell?"

"Not really. It's only slightly higher than [Cure]. Rin-sama says that Healing spells and Blessings are a lot more expensive than Elemental magic, because even though you are trying to help someone, their body still recognizes it as a foreign energy trying to invade it. So in order to heal someone, you have to overpower their natural defenses. It's also the reason why Blessings wear off after a half hour or so, because your magic resistance slowly breaks them down." Megumin explained. "Though that limitation doesn't apply if the Priest is trying to use Blessings on themselves, which is why most Priests just stack up a large number of defensive Blessings instead of wearing real armor."

Manato swallowed hard at the girl's words, waiting for the question. For his team to ask him just how many heal spells he could cast. For him to start seeing the fear in their eyes that he felt in his heart. He had to stop himself from breathing a sigh of relief when they asked a different question.

"Who's this Rin person you all keep mentioning? I haven't seen anyone else around. Where are they?" Ranta asked.

"Rin-sama is an extremely powerful Mage. She has achieved mastery in twelve different branches of Elemental magic and has even developed her own spells and bonded to Elemental Familiars. She also knows how to wield a sword and is super smart. She's our team's leader and is called the Hundred Spellstress because she knows more than a hundred spells." Megumin said, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"Only you call her that." Sara said with a slight smile.

"Well they should call her that! It's a cool name!" Megumin insisted.

"Alright… that sounds cool and all, but how impressive is it? The only Mage I've ever seen in action is Shihoru and in case you weren't aware, her good qualities start and end at her boobs." Ranta said, pointing towards said breasts and causing the girl in question to flush red and cover her chest with her hands.

"As talented as Shirou is with swords, that is about how talented Rin is with magic." Sara explained, putting Rin's power into relative terms. "It normally takes an entire year just to gain mastery in a single Elemental magic type. Though her knowledge of magic alone she is probably in the top twenty Human Magic users in the entire World, only surpassed by people who are thirty or more years her senior, though most of them are starting to become weaker with age and can't compare to her magic reserves. Right now she is finishing up joining the Priest's Guild so that she can learn Divine Magic, she is going to be acting as the backup healing for our group."

"Sounds like your generation had two insane power houses." Haruhiro said looking lost in thought. "I thought that Renji was strong when he stood up to Commander Bri, but Shirou is something else."

"Onii-chan beat up Bri-chan on our first day." Megumin told them, giving each of the newer Rookies a shock. "He beat him so bad, I wouldn't even call it a fight. He would have killed him too, if Rin-sama hadn't stopped him."

"He… beat up the Commander." Moguzo murmured, remembering how the Commander had moved so quickly that they hadn't even been able to follow his movements. At the time, Bri had seemed untouchable. Now hearing that Shirou had to be restrained in order to stop him from killing the gay Commander, they wondered just how strong Shirou really was.

"So this Rin girl is your leader huh, and she's able to control a guy like Shirou." Ranta said a blush forming on his face. "She must be seriously hot."

"W…what!?" Sara half shouted. "Hey, don't start having weird ideas about our leader!"

Her objections were cut short though when a shout came from the front gate of the Barracks. "Megu-chan! Sara! How've you been!"

The group all turned towards the gate and jaws dropped.

Standing there was a woman for whom the word beautiful didn't seem fit. It was as if a goddess had descended to the world.

A female mage, one who was just under six feet tall with long flowing purple hair and bright green eyes shining out from underneath a tall witches hat, which was decked out with curved horns and a smile stitched onto it in the same way one was on Megumin's hat. She was dressed in a short black dress with a low cut to show off her hourglass figure and massive breasts. Even if Shihoru had been scaled up to the same height as this woman, her breasts would have seemed small in comparison. She had a mature, calm and gentle expression, giving her an almost otherworldly look.

"I…is that Rin?" Moguzo said, eyes wide.

"No wonder she could control Shirou. She could probably control any guy." Haruhiro said.

"They're huge!" Yume said, reaching up and touching her own chest. "They look super soft too."

"Y…Yume, don't say things like that!" Shihoru said, flushing with embarrassment, rather than the reason the others were flushing for.

"I wish our leader looked like that. No offense Manato." Ranta said.

"None taken." The blonde man said, finding himself no more able to look away than the others.

"That isn't Rin." Sara said, surprising all of them.

"Mimori-nee-chan!" Megumin shouted happily, running towards the older Mage and jumping onto a hug. "What brings you here?"

Mimori smiled as she patted Megumin's hat. The way they were standing there like that, in almost matching outfits, they looked like a mother and her daughter. "I just came to deliver a message to Archy-tan." Mimori said, giving the little girl a wink. "So, how about we go surprise him?"

* * *

Shirou stared at the tea pot, trying to will it into absorbing heat and nutrients from the tea leaves faster.

Damn he was tired. Sixty hours with no sleep was getting to him. He could have had Niko use her magic to restore his stamina like she did with the others, but that would have been a waste of her magic. He wasn't exhausted physically, just mentally.

He couldn't just take a break. While the new party was complacent for now, with a strict plan in motion, sooner or later they would start to have the same stirrings to advance as the others before them. He wouldn't be able to do anything about that. He only had a few days at the most before they would start to insist on heading out. Manato might be able to resist, but he would only be put in the same position that Rin and Shirou had been in before with their party. That is if he bothered to resist in the first place, he might even want to prove himself.

Shirou hadn't told him, the trait that seemed to define talented Priests. It would have been too complicated to explain. After all, how do you explain the benefit of having a particularly high magic resistance, having it more difficult for other healers to heal you and give you Blessings. It didn't help at all against any sort of physical magic, which was basically the only kind of magic that you had to worry about. There weren't enough forms of magic that targeted the Soul directly.

While anyone who starts to use magical energy gains a certain amount of Magic Resistance, Rin believed that many Priests possessed far more Magic Resistance for their quantity of magical energy. Because of this, if something attempted to alter their thoughts, that something would find it much more difficult to do so. Something like the Counter Force.

This was why Niko seemed completely unaffected by the normal drive that pushed the other members of the Crimson Moon Reserve forward. It was also why Yue was constantly afraid. She didn't receive the same kinds of calming effects from the Counter Force that the rest of them did.

Shirou had tested them the night before to see how they would react to a mystic attack on their psyche, releasing a dark intent on them all. Most had fell completely to pieces, Shihoru having it the worst as she was more tuned to the mystical energy but hadn't yet developed any sort of Magic Resistance. It was only Manato and Niko who had been mostly unaffected. They had felt his presence, but they remained within their right minds… Niko just always acted like that.

Shirou couldn't think of a way of explaining this without revealing the existence of the Counter Force to Manato and leading him to the same kind of paranoia induced living hell that he and Rin had occupied for the last three and a half months. The guy was better off not knowing… Or was it the Counter Force not wanting Shirou to reveal it to him?

Shirou breathed a heavy sigh. He was far too tired for this shit. He just wanted his damn tea already.

He considered trying to use reinforcement magic to boost the intensity of the flames.

[Reinforcement] worked by taking the soul or idea of whatever it was that was the target of the spell and boosting the qualities it already possessed with magical energy. So in theory, he could reinforce the firewood or even the fire itself in order to increase the flames. Though he would be equally likely to just cause the wood to explode and directly interfering with something that was as inconsistent as fire would to next to impossible for someone with his meager level of skills.

He would have better luck [Reinforcing] the tea itself, boosting the water's ability to absorb heat… actually that could work. He could also increase the rate in which it filtered through the tea leaves and maybe even enhance the stimulating effects, helping him wake up more. He might also be able to boost the flavor…

Shirou's eyes widened. It was like something clicked into place. Like he had rediscovered something that he was searching for all along without knowing it.

He quickly acted upon his hunch, taking the teapot off the fire and pouring it into a different teapot. He then put his hand to it and preformed [Structural Analysis] bringing in as much information about the tea as he could and isolating its idea before moving on to the next step of his master plan.

[Reinforcement.]

After a few seconds of enhancing the tea, Shirou performed another check with [Structural Analysis] before concluding that it was ready.

He poured two cup of tea and placed one on the windowsill with a word for Eldritch before he took a sip from the second. The taste and texture were both far better than before, putting a smile onto Shirou's face… but still. "I rushed the preparation of the tea leaves. I'll have to be more careful next time." He was good, but he could do better.

Still, Rin was going to be in for a shock when she got back.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you, Archy-tan." Shirou froze when he heard her voice. Sure enough, Mimori stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, a smile on her face.

For some reason, the sight of the admittedly beautiful woman always filled Shirou with equal parts nostalgia and dread. However, he tried his best to hide it. "Mimori-san. I wasn't expecting to see you before tonight. Has something come up?"

The woman shook her head. "Not at all. We've talk to Mery about coming and speaking to you and your new batch of kids. We just thought it would be nice to change the location, that's all." Mimori said, wrapping one of her long locks around one finger as she spoke. "We thought it would be nice to all meet here for dinner instead of at Sherry's. Naturally the whole gang will be coming along."

"Oh, is that so." Shirou said, scratching his chin in thought.

"That wouldn't be a problem would it?" Mimori asked with a tilt of her head, bending over to the point where Shirou could look straight down her…

"Not at all. It's only that our pantry is running rather low and I'm not sure if I can accommodate everyone." Shirou explained. "Would you mind taking over training the newest Rookies while I swing by the market for ingredients?"

Mimori smiled even wider. "Sure thing. Just leave it all to your Onee-chan, she'll take care of the kids while your away."

"No way, we get to train with the beautiful Onee-chan!" Ranta said from where he was peeking in through the doorway with the others, a small line of blood was leaking out from his nose. Shirou didn't recall hitting the boy in the face. "Forget what I said about throwing in the towel! Let's all give it our best!"

Shirou could only shake his head in pity. They didn't know what they were in for. Mimori had far less control over her strength than he did.

* * *

 **Some people have asked if the Orcs are going to start leaving barrels of beer outside their barracks in order to try to ward away raiders.**

 **The answer is yes. And it will work until one of them is dumb enough to suggest adding poison to it.**

 **The Typhoon will not like the waste of good beer.**


	31. Chapter 30

"Holy crap! Archer, what did you kill in order to make this and where do I find more of it!" Tada shouted after having devoured his first serving of some kind of breaded chicken that Shirou had made. Though he seemed to shout just about everything he said. His entire team was loud.

It had come as something of a surprise to Manato and his team when they saw Kikkawa, a fellow Rookie who had showed up with them just ten days ago, walk in to the barracks gate with a veteran team, all of them as loud as he was. He cheerful blonde boy had been happy to see them, even if he didn't remember any of their names and even after being told them he didn't get any of them right and just gave them all embarrassing nicknames instead.

Still, it was interesting to see other veterans. In his mind, Shirou counted as a veteran, even if the others insisted that he was still a Rookie. Tada in particular interested him.

The man was one of the three frontline Priests that Shirou had mentioned before, the former Warrior had hung up his sword and replaced it with a massive war-hammer. His Priest's coat was inlaid with interlocking metal plates, sort of like if he had chainmail sewed between two different coats. Shirou said the style of armor was called "jack of plate" and was used when one wanted to appear less armored than they actually are.

It was strange for someone so violent in his every action to be a Priest.

The first thing the man did when he walked through the gate was challenge 'Archer' to a fight, even though Shirou wasn't even there. Then when he saw Manato's group trying desperately to survive against Mimori's whirling blade and staff combos, he shouted that he would fight them instead. Manato was glad that the man was willing to heal all of their broken bones afterwards, because he doubted he would have been able to manage the job.

The party all regretted their decision to train with Mimori. While training with Shirou had been like a long horrible march through a dessert in the middle of a sandstorm, training with Mimori and Tada had been like being hit by a truck. Much faster, but also leaving far more damage… Wait, what was a truck again?

"Stop overreacting. It's just some melruk meat I bought at the market. I haven't had time to hunt properly with a new group of Rookies to look after." Shirou said in his normal tone of voice, though Manato thought he saw a slight smile.

"Got to admit, your cooking's gotten even better. My hat is off to you kid." Inui said as the older Hunter took his time with his own food. Manato said he was a Hunter, but in truth he was also an ex-Thief and an ex-Warrior. The only Guild he could consider joining that he hadn't already mastered would be the Mage's Guild, since the others would require him to be undevoted to any God or Goddess.

Beside him a smaller woman with pale blond hair, sun kissed skin and large soft lips was speaking incomprehensible gibberish a hundred miles an hour while still finding the space to shovel food into her mouth. Her name was Anna, but she would refer to herself in third person as 'Anna-san' whenever she got excited, which was almost all the time, and expected people to address her as such. She was also a Priest, meaning that this veteran party too seemed to believe it was best practice to have two healers, though she was a former Mage instead of Warrior and was strictly a backline fighter.

"Any clue what she's saying?" Ranta asked Haruhiro.

"How would I know?" The Thief replied with a shrug.

"Because you're a straight man, it's your duty in life to interpret the random crap that comes out of people's mouths." Ranta argued, before adding his usual comment. "Come on, it's all you're really good for."

"She's saying something about the food of the gods. She's mentioning names of what I think are either deities or places and something about an orchard in heaven." Shirou said, hearing the boy's conversation. "Anna-san tends to switch languages whenever she gets excited. She's speaking in a language that doesn't exist in this world, so you shouldn't be surprised that you can't recognize it. I can make out bits and pieces, but I don't really know what it is myself."

"Food of the Gods." Niko said, those seeming to be the only words that made it through to her. "So good. Niko can die happy now."

"You are all being silly." Shirou sighed as he took a bite of his own food, chewed it a bit and sighed. "As I thought, I didn't balance the lemon and sage right. I'll have to adjust my measurements to make up for the increased potency. There is still room for improvement."

"You mean it gets better!?" Tada shouted in shock before pointing a finger at Shirou. "I knew it! I always knew there was something off about you, Archer! You're really a God of Cooking in disguise, aren't you!"

"God of Cooking." Niko and Anna-san repeated.

Tokimune started to laugh hard. "Careful you three, wouldn't want you all to get thrown out of the Priest's Guild for worshipping another God, now would we?" The man said between chuckles.

"Speaking of Priests, Mary. Since you're here, I assume you are willing to join the new recruits' party." Shirou said, turning his attention to another one of the girls.

Manato would have to admit that Mary was nearly as beautiful as Mimori, though she was younger than the Mage was, around the same age as Manato himself. She had pale, flawless skin and long dark blue hair that was tied up on one side. Like Tada, she was dressed in a cross between normal Priest's clothes and functional armor, having metal plates stitched between the layers of her robes and jacket. Like Shirou she had a distant expression and overall demeanor that was more than a little off putting. Even as she ate Shirou's amazing cooking and was surrounded by the laughing members of the Tokkis, she didn't smile even once.

While Shirou was like a robot trying to pretend it was human, or a human struggling with the fact that his face was as pliable as sheet metal, Mary wasn't even trying to pretend. She was a beautiful thing that could only be admired from a distance, as you could never get close to it. Manato couldn't help but wonder at having such a person in his party.

Mary looked at Manato, or perhaps she looked past him, Manato couldn't tell. Either way, the boy felt like he was being judged. He hated being judged. After a moment's consideration, she opened her mouth, prepared to speak… only she didn't get to.

"Hold it right there, Archy-tan!" Anna-san shouted as she stood up from her seat and slammed her hands onto the table before swinging out a hand to point one finger at Shirou in a dramatic fashion. "Don't you go running on ahead! This is an exchange, right!? An exchange! If you want Mary, then you have to give us Megu-chan! Those are the rules! Don't break the rules, Archy-tan!"

"Wait, what? Since when was this an exchange?" Megumin said, tilting her head in confusion from where she sat in Mimori's lap.

"I see." Shirou said a slightly cocky smile passing his lips. "A pity. If Megumin leaves, then I suppose there wouldn't be much reason for you all to visit us anymore for dinner."

"Huh!" Anna-san vocalized, her finger drooping along with her confident grin. "Th…That's not fair!"

"What will it be, Megumin or dinner? It's your choice." Shirou said, taking a certain amount of amusement from Anna-san starting to break down as she tried to figure out a way around Shirou's offer of choice, as she was unwilling to give up either.

"We don't have to decide!" Tada shouted as he too stood up from the table. "Archer, I challenge you to a fight, and when I win, we'll get both Megu-chan and your cooking!"

Anna-san's grin returned. "Yeah! Go Tada-tan! Fight on and win one for the team!" She cheered, throwing her arms up in the air.

"An interesting proposal. And what would happen if I were to win this fight?" Shirou asked the battle crazed Priest.

"Then I suppose we leave you with Mary and go home empty handed." Tada said, probably trying to sound badass.

"What!? No!" Anna-san shouted, shaking her head rapidly. "We can't bet that much on you winning! Not when your chances of winning are next to nothing!"

"Hey, just because he beat me before, doesn't mean he'll beat me again!" Tada objected, annoyed that the girl who had just been cheering him on was now insulting him.

"You dumbass, you aren't any stronger than you were last time! He will beat you and then we won't have either Megu-chan or the god food!" Anna-san shouted back at him.

"That's enough you two." Tokimune interjected in their little argument, though he continued to smile. "Megumin has already made it clear who she wants to stay with, and we all agreed not to press her. And as for Mary, we're just delivering the invite for her and nothing more. We've already mooched a free meal off of Archy's generosity. Leave it at that."

Anna-san pouted but sat back down, crossing her arm and scowling at Shirou. "Fine. We'll let you go for now, but we will be back."

"Of course you will." Shirou said with a sigh, his shoulders dropping. "I'll have to restock the pantry yet again then. You eat like a starving animal."

"Anna-san does not!" The girl blushed bright red at the accusation, though some of her teammates started to laugh, not very discreetly. "Anna-san is thin and beautiful! Archy-tan should be happy to do anything for her instead of being such a meanie!"

"Back on topic, what do you say, Mary?" Shirou said, glancing over at the blue haired girl Priest.

Mary looked at him, taking a moment to wait for Anna-san to stop throwing around what had to be insults in another language, before she finally spoke. "You know how I operate, correct?" She said in a voice just as flat as Shirou's normal tone.

"Yes. I do." Shirou said with a nod. "That's one of the reasons that I suggested you. You'll do your best to keep them alive, even if they hate you for it. At the same time, you won't be babying them, so they won't get their egos inflated and think that they are stronger than they really are. Right now they are barely strong enough to fight two goblins, and they aren't extraordinary talents. They have what it takes to survive in this world, but it will be a long road ahead of them, and I would rather they not try to take short cuts and end up dead in a ditch somewhere."

Manato was confused by Shirou's words. He said that Mary would do her best to help them, but that they would hate her for it. Why would they hate someone for helping them?

Mary thought about if for a few moments before nodding her agreement. "At what time should we meet and where?"

"If you come here tomorrow at dawn, you can have breakfast with us before going out with them." Shirou suggested.

"Acceptable." Mary nodded her agreement before turning back to her food.

* * *

"Is it just me or are all veterans a bunch of weirdos." Ranta said as he lay down in his bunk back at the boy's room. "I mean, first there was that Loopy Girl from the tower, then Commander Faggot, Steel Eyed Shirou, and now the Laughing Stocks and the Ice Queen. We have yet to meet a single veteran who isn't batshit crazy."

After dinner, Shirou went back to working on resizing the armor sets while the rest of the guys all took their baths and washed off the day's sweat and dirt before leaving to let the girls have a turn. Now there wasn't much left to do but think over the day and try not to pay any attention to their sore muscles.

"Are you really the one to be talking?" Haruhiro said before looking up at the ceiling. "I met a guy on our first day who seemed pretty normal. Shinohara didn't shout randomly or stare me down or anything."

"So that's one out of what, twenty?" Ranta said with a sigh before giving a tired grin. "Still, those girls sure were hot. Makes me kind of depressed about the slim pickings we've got in our little group. Maybe I'll manage to get that Mary girl to go out with me. I bet I could melt that cold expression of hers."

"Doubt it." The other three guys said at once.

"Don't shoot me down in unison!" Ranta shouted angrily. "How did a guy like Shirou get to be around so many beautiful girls in the first place? He's a nice guy and all, but he has all the outwards warmth of an icicle and the social skills of a hedgehog. Yet he's on a team with three girl, and the two of them we've seen are kind of cute. Even if the blonde is too damn tall for my tastes. Then there is Mimori, Anna and Mary, who were all super hotties."

"Three? Don't you mean four girls on his team?" Moguzo corrected him.

"I'm not counting the little girl. Too young to be considered. I'm only looking at girls who have started developing sexual characteristics." Ranta replied before scratching his chin. "Though if she shows signs of looking anything like Mimori in the next few years, then I'll start reconsidering."

"You are horrible." Haruhiro said with a shake of the head. "Don't you have any human decency at all?"

"Of course not!" Ranta shouted before pushing himself up out of his bunk. "What is the use of human decency anyways!? I am despicable. I am the King of Indecency!"

"You really shouldn't be sounding so proud of that." Manato chuckled at the red-head's over the top actions.

"Tsh, whatever. I'm going." Ranta said, walking towards the door.

"Going? Isn't It too late to be going out." Haruhiro said, looking towards the slit in the wall they had instead of a window. No light was coming through, so it was likely dark already.

"Come on, don't make me spell it out." Ranta said, turning to Haruhiro with a wide grin. "B-A-T-H-S."

* * *

"Ah, this feels so nice." Yume said as she let herself slink into the pool sized bath up to her neck. All of the aches from the day where being pushed back by the warm water.

"I know, isn't it." Megumin said as she relaxed herself as well while sitting in Mimori's lap. Mimori and Anna-san had decided to stay behind and join the girls in the bath before heading back home. "Originally, the bath was just a small hole in the ground, but Rin-sama used her Earth Magic to grow it out and compact the outside walls of it into shapes that you can sit on, then she created that crystal you see over there." Megumin pointed to a large crystal coin in the center of the pool. Light was coming from the small disc, illuminating the pool. "That is one of the crystal coins that Orcs use for currency. Rin-sama wove a spell into it so that it can be used to heat the water to just the right temperature and it even produces a relaxing current in water."

"I didn't know that there was magic like that." Shihoru said as she looked down into the pool.

"It isn't a part of the magic taught by the Mage's Guild. Necromancy and Dwarven craft have something kind of like it, but what Rin does is different somehow." Mimori told the younger Mage.

"I still don't know how she made it. Rin refuses to tell us." Anna-san said with a huff. "Not that I'll complain so long as she keeps letting us use it. It's usually a lot of hard work to heat up water for a bath, especially a large one like this, but it feels so fucking good." Anna-san said, stretching herself out and splashing the water about.

"Yes, it is nice to have a warm bath with everyone." Mimori agreed.

"If you say so." Sara said, not sounding nearly as happy about it.

"Don't be a sour-puss Sara-chan." Anna-san said, grinning at the Paladin. "You're just embarrassed about those big old melons of yours." Sara flushed and covered her chest with one hand. "What you covering them up for, we're all girls here. You should be more proud that you have such large bazongas."

"Bazongas…" Niko giggled as she relaxed herself much more openly next to the flustered Paladin.

"I keep telling you. It isn't that my breasts are big, I'm just… too big in general." Sara mumbled.

"Shihoru is big too." Yume said, startling the small girl.

"W…what?" She squeaked, not prepared to be in the center of this.

"Your boobs." Yume said, pointing to the girl's chest. "They are so big, and adorably round."

"A…adorably." Shihoru repeated, her face turning even more red.

"Yume bets they are super soft too." Before the Mage could object, Yume reached over and touched her breasts.

"Wait… wh… Nya…"

"Shihoru makes such a cute kitty noise. Nya! Nya!" Yume laughed, even as Niko and Anna-san ganged up on Sara. They were all enjoying themselves. Or most of them were.

They had no idea that on the other side of the wall, four boys were listening in on them. In the beginning Haruhiro had tried to stop Ranta, but as it turned out, the allure of the forbidden garden was too great for him, and it was the same for Manato and Moguzo as well.

The bath house had only one window and it was seven feet up off the ground. Too far up for any of them. In an action of self-sacrifice, Moguzo knelt before the spot, and told the others to climb up on his shoulders. It was a bonding moment among the boys that should have been a memory they would have looked fondly back on for years… if something unexpected didn't happen.

It would still be a memorable night anyways. Just with a lot more shocks to it.

A chill ran through their entire bodies as a sense of imminent danger began to overwhelm them. Moguzo jolted upwards as animal instinct told him to run for his life, causing Manato to fall down on top of the larger boy. Before any of the four could get their wits about them, an unfamiliar voice spoke up, scaring the crap out of them. "What do you four think you're doing?"

The four boys looked up to see a girl dressed in the whites and blues of the Priests' Order and with midnight black hair, standing a few feet away from them, her hands crossed underneath her chest and a look of disapproval on her face. She must have been a Priest, but in their eyes, at that moment, she seemed more like a dark and vengeful god.

The boys tried to think of something to say. Anything that would get this feeling of dread to stop. But before they did, another memorable and shocking event occurred.

The door to the bathhouse burst open and Mimori came tumbling out with sword and staff in hand. She moved quickly into a stance with her arms and legs both spread wide… showing absolutely everything. She looked around before seeing the new girl and the boys, all of whom had forgotten all about the girl Priest in order to gawk with open mouths at the naked form of Mimori.

The woman immediately relaxed, and a smile spread across her face. "It's so nice to see you Rin-chan. How was your training with the Priest's Guild?" She said, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that she was standing naked in front of the boys.

Rin sighed before lifting up one hand and making a complex seal in the air. "Ohm rel ect el krom darsh." She said, causing a dark shadow to form in the air around her hand before it streamed off towards the already spellbound guys in the form of a shadowy mist. Just two seconds later, each one of them was fast asleep. "It's nice to see you too Mimori, though you shouldn't walk around outside naked."

"Ah, I suppose I shouldn't." Mimori agreed as she sheathed her sword with her staff and started to walk back towards the bathhouse. "Do you want to join us? The water is already warmed up perfectly."

"Yes please. All the incense they burned at that stupid temple has given me a headache and I really need to get myself out of these clothes. Blue and white are not my colors." Rin said as she made to follow the older Mage.

"Should we do something about them?" Mimori asked, pointing to the unconscious boys.

"Nah, just leave them there. They'll be out cold till morning."


	32. Chapter 31

Yume moved as quietly as she could towards the kitchen, peeking in through the window while making sure not to be seen herself. She spotted her target with his back towards her working at a cutting board at the kitchen counter no more than thirty feet away from here.

Slowly standing up Yume drew one of the blunted practice arrows and aimed squarely in the center of her senpai's back, so that even if he moved slightly or a breeze picked up, she would still make the shot. From this close and with the target unprepared, it was an easy shot that any Hunter could have made.

However, this target was no ordinary prey.

The moment Yume started to draw her arrow, her senpai started to lift his arm, and just after she released the arrow he quickly moved the hand holding the kitchen knife to his shoulder, using it to cover the spot on his back that Yume had been aiming for. Yume's shoulders and face fell as she heard the soft dink of the blunt arrow hitting the knife and bouncing off. Her senpai had deflected her sneak attack without even looking around.

"Not a bad attempt. It would have worked on just about anyone else." Her senpai said, turning around to look at her out the window. "Breakfast will be ready in a few. Would you mind waking up the others?"

Yume's lips trembled before she gave a short cry and drew a second arrow. "Yume want her wolfy!"

* * *

"Yume is never going to be able to hit senpai, is she?" Yume said as she sank into her chair at the kitchen table.

"Alone? Probably not. I can count the number of people who might be able to get a hit on me in single combat in this city on one hand. However, I don't have unlimited stamina, and I only have two hands. Your chances get better with numbers." Shirou told her.

"Yume just wants her wolfy." Yume whined.

"Perhaps later. I doubt there is any room for it in the dog house. Not after last night." Shirou joked, thinking about how the girls were now shunning the boys after they had tried to peek while the girls had been bathing. It was a good thing that Mimori didn't decide to blow them all to hell. Otherwise Shirou would have just wasted three nights preparing armor for a few piles of burnt flesh. There situation wasn't helped by Ranta's refusal to apologize for his actions.

"Yume wouldn't make Wu-chan stay in a dog house! Wu-chan will sleep cuddled up with Yume!" Yume objected, not seeming to get the joke. Shirou couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that the girl had already chosen a name for her future animal companion.

"It's a little early for yelling, isn't it?" Rin said as she entered the room, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her hair was still down, and she was dressed in her dark night gown. A few stray bits of hay were stuck in her hair and on her clothes. Given her tired expression, she was likely there for her morning tea, which Shirou already had waiting for her by the fire. "Is something the matter, you look a little down?"

"It's nothing." Yume said with a small shake of her head. "Yume is just sad because senpai promised her that he would buy Yume a wolfy if anyone could get a hit in on him during practice, but senpai is just too strong for Yume. She tried a sneak attack this morning, but it didn't work. Yume is starting to feel like it is impossible."

"Archer, did you promise a girl something knowing would won't have to pay up?" Rin said, giving Shirou the kind of scowl a mother gives to a naughty child. "I can't believe I was gone for one week and you turned into the kind of despicable person who would tease an innocent young maiden like that."

"It was supposed to motive her." Shirou said, feeling a little awkward about the subject all of the sudden.

"That promise meant a lot to Yume, and know she has to face the fact that you might never even had meant it." Rin said as she walked straight up to Shirou putting her hands on her hips and looking right into his face, forcing him to look away. "You clearly don't understand girls at all, do you Archer?"

"Clearly I don't." Shirou admitted weakly.

"You're impossible, and it is too early for me to be dealing with you." Rin said with a tired sigh. "Where's my tea?"

"It's already prepared. Just let me get it for you." Shirou said, glad for the excuse to turn away from the woman.

He really shouldn't have turned his back on her.

Shirou's world exploded as something hard hit him right in the side. Air was knocked out of his lungs and a pain so sharp flooded through his system that lights started to dance in front of his eyes. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, gasping helplessly as his lungs refused to take in air. Then he felt the blunt point of a practice arrow lightly pushed against his shoulder.

"And that is how you bring down an Archer. You have to come at his with bare hands, or else he will instantly know that something is up." Rin said to Yume as she held onto the surprised girl's arm, guiding a hand holding the blunt arrow.

Shirou mouth continued to move, but no sound came out. "Is senpai alright."

"Archer's fine. He just needs a second to…" Rin started, but stopped when Shirou coughed up a mouthful of blood. "…oh."

* * *

"How long are you planning on being a big baby about this." Rin asked after having gotten dressed in her normal work attire, that being the red and black leather armor made from the Dragon Horse hide. She had also returned her hair to its normal twintail like state.

They were all sitting around the kitchen table, nervously picking at their food. Or most of them were at least, since Shirou had very pointedly not served anything to Rin.

The drama between the members of Yume's party had been forgotten in light of the drama between Shirou and Rin. The newest Rookies had never seen Shirou acting so human. Not successfully anyways.

"You broke two of my ribs and punctured my lung, and then you expect me to just cook your meals for you?" Shirou said, scowling at the girl.

"I healed it didn't I? No harm, no foul." Rin said with a bit of a nervous blush.

"No harm? There was so much harm that you needed a [Sacrament] just to take care of it all." Shirou countered with a small huff. Sacrament was among the most powerful healing spells that the Priest's Guild had.

"I only hit you so hard because I needed to make sure you would go down. It's your own fault for being so hard to bring down in the first place." Rin insisted. Shirou didn't respond, just turned his head away and continued to eat his breakfast. "Archer, I'm sorry, okay." Rin said with an exasperated sigh.

It took a moment for Shirou to respond. "You know it is hard to believe you when you don't even use my real name."

"Is that what this is about?" Rin said, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'm sorry, 'Shirou'. Now will you stop being such a big baby."

Shirou threw the girl another scowl, but she already had her victorious smile on her face. He knew damn well he wasn't going to get anything more out of her. So with a sigh of resignation, he handed her his plate of food and went to prepare another one.

"Thank you very much, Archer." She said, picking up the fork and taking a bite. Shirou did his best to keep the annoyed look of his face. "Hm… you've improved in the short time I've been gone." She then gave him a look, as if to say that she knew exactly what Shirou had done to bring out the food's flavor.

"Sorry if this is rude of me to ask but… are you two dating or something?" Haruhiro asked them.

"No, we aren't." Both Rin and Shirou replied in unison, earning them some looks.

"So, you six are the newest group from the tower, correct?" Rin asked them, in an attempt to change the subject.

"Yeah, that's right." Manato said with a short nod.

"I'm sure that Shirou has given you something of a rundown about how things work but let me just add my own little two cents, just to make sure you get it." Rin said calmly, pausing for a second before delivering the gut punch. "I don't know what the Commander told you, but the average rate of survival of Volunteer Soldiers over the course of the first five years is around thirty percent. Even with our help getting set up with full armor and giving them advice on how to set up their parties, out of the forty-two individuals to come out of the tower in the last three months, sixteen of them are already dead because they thought that they could handle stronger hunts."

The brand-new rookies all looked shocked at those numbers.

"I'm not telling you this just to scare you. You need to understand that if you push forward in search of glory, you are risking getting yourselves killed. Don't take unnecessary risks. People are going to try to pressure you into hunting stronger and stronger enemies, they will insult you and bully you, you will feel the urge to press forward, and I am telling you now to ignore it." Rin said them all. "Survival is more important than anything else in this world. If you really are desperate for money, just ask us for help. And if you aren't desperate, then there is no reason to push yourselves. Don't get killed for a stupid reason. Understood?"

The newbies all nodded their heads.

"Alright, moving on, you're first objective should be saving up enough money to purchase your next set of skills. Until they learn their first real spell, Mages in particular are basically useless. However once Shihoru learns some shadow magic, you will find your fights becoming a lot easier. [Shadow Echo] can paralyze targets and because of the way it travels it has almost no risk of friendly fire or missing the target." Rin explained to the group. "However, It is a spell that works directly on the enemy's body, so you will be fighting against their magic resistance, increasing the cost of the spell and limiting what it can be used on, but you will find it is more than a match for most, if not all, goblins. Pick up the spell as soon as possible."

"Y…yes. I understand." Shihoru said with a quick nod.

"It will likely take you two or three days to learn the spell. But while your doing that, Yume can get that 'wolfy' that Archer promised her." Rin said, smiling at Shirou.

"You're really going to get Yume her [Animal Companion]?" Yume asked, her eyes seeming to shine as she trembled with excitement.

Shirou nodded. "I was always planning on doing so regardless whether you got the hit on me or not." He said, scowling a little at Rin. "A new bond has to be made with a pup, so it is best to form the bond early so that they have time to grow. Even after you form the bond, you won't be able to bring them out with you into combat for a least another month. I was simply waiting until your party had decided to take a day off to train and you would have a chance to learn the skills required. In the meantime the goal would have kept you motivated to improve. There was no need for Rin to sucker punch me while I was fetching her tea."

"I thought we were over that." Rin said.

"I can still taste my own blood in my mouth and it is currently ruining breakfast for me." Shirou grumbled.

"What, is it somehow different when it isn't the blood of your enemies?" Rin teased as she took another bite of her breakfast.

"I don't eat my enemies raw and bloody. I have always properly cooked everything." Shirou objected.

Rin froze, her fork in her mouth. "Don't you mean… you don't eat your enemies?" She said, giving Shirou a worried look as the boy didn't respond. "Archer, what exactly have you been feeding us?"

Shirou looked away, a small smile on his face.

Sara dropped her utensils and clapped her hands over her ears. "I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know!"

Shirou stood back up as there was a knock at the door. "That must be Mary. I'll see if she still wants to join us for breakfast."

"Archer, you get back here right now and tell me what you've been feeding us, or I swear I will break more than just your ribs!" Rin shouted as she got up to chase after him.

With the two of them out of the room, the rest of the inhabitance all looked down at their plates of beacon and sausages. "You… you don't think its goblin… do you?" Haruhiro asked, poking at it.

"Don't know." Niko said between mouthfuls, not in the slightest bit disturbed by the idea of eating sentient creatures. "Don't really care. It still tastes amazing."

Ranta gave a loud huff before he too returned to eating. "It's fitting for a Dread Knight to feed upon his enemies." The boy reasoned.

"Just stop talking about it." Sara said with a shiver. "After he started cooking with Dragon Horse meat, I decided that I simply didn't want to know what he put in our meals."

"Mmm… Dragon Horse." Niko said with a sort of longing tone. "It tasted so good."

* * *

 **Shorter chapter, but I felt like it would be funny.**


	33. Chapter 32

Hedvig huddled in the corner of her family's den, holding her breath, too frightened to even make a sound. The sounds of a struggle had died just as quickly as they had appeared, leaving only a crushing silence and the lingering smell of blood.

"Mama… why frightened?" One of her five pups mumbled as the little one woke up, feeling his mother's tension.

Hedvig reached one of her claws down and begin to rub the scruff of the boy's neck in an effort to keep the child calm and quiet. "Hush little one. You must be quiet." She dared to whisper.

The female Kobold held her breath, straining her ears in an attempt to divine what was happening beyond the mouth of their little den. Praying that what remained of her family would go unnoticed and that the monsters would just pass them by. At first, it seemed as though her prayers might have been answered as the sound of footsteps growing more distant reached her, growing quieter with each passing second.

After a moment with no sound at all, Hedvig risked a sigh of relief, closing her eyes and giving thanks to the Elders for what small mercy there was in the world, thinking that the invaders were gone. It was only then that she realized that the smell of blood still remained in the air. Not only that, it had gotten stronger.

Her eyes shot open and she looked up towards the entrance to their hollowed-out hole in the wall to find a human standing there, his entire form seeming to glow red in the ambient light coming from the cave walls. Before she even had time to react, the cruel beast threw a knife, penetrating Hedvig's throat, successfully silencing her.

As she collapsed to the floor, clawing at the blade that was lodged in her throat she heard her little ones starting to voice their own surprise. She turned her head to look at them, hoping that they would be able to feel her wish for them to run away as best they can, but all this gained her was a view for when five more knives flew through the air, burying themselves into the chests of her beloved children.

'No. Please no.' Hedvig wanted to cry as she reached out her paw towards her dying babies. A moment later, a second knife penetrated the base of her neck, severing her spine. The mother's entire body went limp and she died, shedding a single tear for the children who would never get the chance to grow up.

She could only hope that in the next life, they would no longer have to fear attacks by such cruel monsters.

* * *

Shirou was lost in thought as he cleaned and stored away his knives after retrieving them from the dead Kobold mother and her children.

He didn't regret killing them. If he had allowed them to live, then there was a strong chance of them alerting the others of a group of intruders. With his party already five levels deep into the Cyrene Mines, any sort of mass alert would become annoying at the very least, possibly even dangerous.

While Kobolds were often skilled at creating weapons and armor, they weren't warrior races like the Goblins or Orcs. A vast majority of the wolfman-like creatures were unarmed workers and craftsmen.

While some would argue that there was little need to harass the Kobolds, as they never raided human settlements themselves, nearly eighty percent of all weapons used by the other monster races came from the Kobolds and their mines.

While the Kobolds did have some ability to grow their own crops in a strange luminescent cavern in their underground civilization, they only produced half as much food as it took to maintain their large numbers, and were therefore reliant on trade in order to feed themselves. Which is why they supplied all of the other races with the weapons they needed in order to attack the humans. Making them one of the most important enemies to keep an eye on.

Even so, Shirou was vaguely aware that the deaths of the mother and her children served no purpose in the grand scheme of things, and that they were not part of the threat against humanity. Even so, he had mercilessly killed them, not because they were enemies, but just because their lives were an obstacle for him.

…And he felt nothing for having done so.

After his time spent with Yume, Shirou started to question his own actions; his own casualness towards the topic of killing. He had always known that he was different from the others, but he had always chalked it up to his skill on the battlefield. It had never really occurred to him just how easy killing was for him with comparison to the others. Even Rin, who was the closest to being like him, still hesitated before killing her enemies, if only just a little.

There was the temptation to simply blame this all on the Counter Force, but Shirou felt like the World had little to do with this. This was just what he was. He was a Sword that existed solely to cut down his enemies. It was the thing that had allowed him to survive and to keep the people around him alive as well. However, it was the thing that made them fear him.

He had seen the discomfort in Yume's eyes when he had killed a mere twenty goblins when she had been spotted. How would she have reacted if she had witnessed him slaughter hundreds? Her party may have known that Shirou had killed thousands but hearing it and seeing what that looks like where two different things. Would they fear him as well if they ever had a chance to really see him in action?

Did he even care if they did?

"Archer?" Rin said, breaking him out of his own thoughts. "You've been distracted. Is something wrong?" She gave him a questioning look. Perhaps she was still a little worried about the injury from that morning. She had freaked out a little when she had seen what her punch had managed to do.

In order to go unnoticed by Shirou's senses, she had to throw a punch without the use of magic. She hadn't thought that an ordinary punch without any magic reinforcing it would have done that kind of damage, since in their sparring sessions, Shirou had managed to brush off heavily reinforced punches that could crack boulders, but she had flustered him and thus caught him off guard without even tensed muscles as a defense, and just so happened to have landed a blow where his ribs would most easily break. It was a one in a hundred punch, and Shirou just happened to be the unlikely number one.

It had been an accident, one done in the spirit of a childish prank in order to punish Shirou for being cocky that had gone horribly wrong. He hadn't really been mad about it but had wanted to use it to tease Rin back in an equally childish manner. Sadly, she knew exactly what his real objective was, and refused to play along, making the entire thing a moot point.

But he had gotten his vengeance in the end by convincing her that she had been eating Orc meat, believing that it was pork. Her expression had been priceless. She always made the most amusing flustered faces.

He had actually been told by Itsukushima that Orcs really did taste like pork, but he had never tried cooking them himself. Too tough and stringy to make for good ingredients. Not without tenderizing it with a jackhammer… whatever that was.

"I'm fine. Just a little lost in thought." Shirou told her, trying to brush off her worries.

Rin narrowed her eyes at him, looking him up and down, causing him to feel nervous. "Archer, you didn't sleep last night, did you?" She said accusingly.

"Ah… no. I was finishing up the armor sets for the new team." Shirou admitted.

"I see. And when was the last time you did sleep?" She asked him.

"…About four days ago." Shirou again admitted, barely containing a yawn as he did so.

Rin took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You sure do have a strange way of taking a week off. How many times have I told you not to work yourself to death?"

"Probably around the same number of times I've told you the same." Shirou said, hoping that sarcasm would get him out of this conversation. It didn't. Rin just throw him another dirty look.

"Alright. Let's go home." Rin said to the others, already turning back towards the way they came.

"That isn't necessary. I'm still in more than good enough condition to fig…" Shirou started to object, but Rin shot him down.

"How about we not make hypocrites of ourselves. We just got through telling the new group that there was no rush to push forward. The Kobolds aren't going anywhere. We can start mapping the seventh level tomorrow, after you are properly rested." Rin said calmly.

"Tomorrow the route will become more difficult after what we did here today." Shirou pointed out.

"Then we will map out a different route. We have all the time in the World. Rushing will only cause us to make mistakes." Rin countered easily with a small shrug. "We are going home, and you are going to get some sleep, even if I have to drag you into bed with me." She said, giving him a playful smirk. She expected her tease to get some kind of a reaction out of him, whether it was a surprised flush or his own sarcastic retort. But his face remained unchanged and he didn't say anything, and so her own smile fell. "Shirou… are you really alright?"

"I…" Shirou started before he glanced away from Rin and towards the other girls, seeing their curious faces. "Perhaps you're right. Maybe I do just need some sleep."

Rin gave him a concerned frown but nodded her head. "Alright. Let's start heading back up."

* * *

"I can't believe she spelled me to sleep." Shirou grumbled as he sat on the beach of swords. How could he have a restful sleep in these kinds of conditions, with that traitorous woman in HIS kitchen.

He had tried to insist that he could at least cook dinner before going off to sleep, but Rin had refused him. She said that the rest of them could handle the food and that he needed to rest, when Shirou tried to resist, she cast her magic on him while his attention was elsewhere, putting him to sleep. It would take his body a little while to overcome the effects of the Shadow Elemental magic. Even though Shirou's resistance to Elemental Magic was far greater than that of any normal human, as the Elementals' [Aversion to Iron] extended to his soul, Rin had burned quite a lot of her magical energy in order to make sure that the spell would stick for at least a while.

If he had been aware during the moment she was casting and had defended with his own magical energy, he could have brushed aside the spell all together, regardless of how much force Rin had put behind it.

Two failed attempts to resist a sneak attack in one day. Shirou really must have been tired.

"Maybe this is her way of getting back at me for telling her that she's been eating Orcs." Shirou said with a sigh.

"And what would be so wrong with that?" Eldritch asked, as her massive wolf-like form faded in from the ether. "You know that Orc tastes just like boar, right?"

"So I've been told." Shirou said, a small smile entering his expression. "It's good to see you, Eldritch."

"Is it? Then why have you been avoiding me these last few days?" Eldritch said, trying to sound hurt as she moved up to Shirou and wrapped her body around him, leaving her head next to his left arm. "I was beginning to think you didn't love me anymore."

"I've been busy." Shirou said weakly as he began to scratch the White Goddess behind her ears. "I've been leaving out more offerings for you to try to make up for it."

"Yes, I know, and I know you've been busying yourself too. Yume's been telling me all about it." Eldritch said, laughing softly. "She's such a rambunctious little one. Did you realize she already sees you as her Alpha."

"Yes, I did." Shirou admitted. It was hard not to see Yume's admiration of him.

"Well, just remember that wolves are only permitted one mate. I am not a Goddess of Polygamy. You can have Little Yume or the Clever Girl, not both." Eldritch teased him.

"Please stop." Shirou said with a sigh. Yume and Shirou were too different for him to ever see her as more than a little sister. She was innocent and loved life. While Shirou was a merciless killer, who would kill anything for the sake of convenience. As for Rin… Rin was complicated. Just like him, she both interacted with everyone else but was seemingly separate from them.

There were times when Shirou felt like the two of them were the only real things in the world. Or perhaps that the world was real and that they were just figments of the imaginations of others. They were two people who might as well be strangers alone together on an island, keeping each other company simply because there is no one else there. A funny comparison to make, considering Shirou was sitting on a beach in his own mind talking to a Goddess in the form of a giant wolf who was his only company.

"Tell me what is troubling you." Eldritch more demanded than asked, after a few moments of silence.

"What makes you think that there is something wrong?" Shirou asked her.

"We are in a World of your own creations. It is a reflection of the state of your soul. Just by breathing the air here, I can tell that something is troubling you." Eldritch said glancing up at Shirou. Shirou sniffed at the air. It smelled of iron… or like blood. How appropriate. "Come now, tell your Goddess what is troubling you."

Shirou thought about it for a few moments before deciding on a place to start. "Eldritch, some time ago, you said that you could barely recognize my soul as being human."

"Hm… yes, I believe I did say something along those lines." Eldritch said, nodding her large head.

"I've always known that I was different from the other humans. Deep in my soul, I am a Sword. A weapon meant to cut down its enemies, no matter what form they may take, or whether it is just or not. I just… never realized how different it made me from them." Shirou admitted.

"Is that so bad?" Eldritch asked him. "I am far more different from those normal humans than you are. We are all who we are. Might as well just be happy with ourselves. Do you really wish you were like the others?"

"You're right. I don't regret what I am, since it is this nature of mine that lets me keep those close to me safe… but." Shirou closed his eyes and tried to think what he was trying to say. He didn't know though. Not really. Even so, the words found him anyways. "I'm missing something. Part of what made me function is gone. Something that kept my violent nature in check."

"Your violent nature?" Eldritch questioned Shirou.

"Most living things perform acts of violence. Whether out of desperation, natural instinct, or catharsis, but there always a strong emotion attached to it. A pleasure or fear that drives them to commit it. But for me, killing has always been a part of life. It was as natural as breathing and performed with just as little thought and emotion. It requires more to stop me from killing something than it takes to convince me to do it." Shirou explained.

"I see." Eldritch said, closing her own eyes. "I think you're over thinking things. But if you think you are missing something, then how about you search for it? Or better yet, just make something to fill the gap. You humans are pretty good at doing that sort of thing."

Shirou felt his head clearing, the Shadow Elemental that had been keeping him under finally weakening to the point where he could throw off its effects.


	34. Chapter 33

The sharpened point of Manato's spear-staff sank into the left shoulder of the goblin he was fighting with Haruhiro.

He immediately wished he had gone for the right shoulder as the goblin gave a scream of rage and twisted its body around on the end of the spear, trying to stretch out its right arm to slash at him with its sword.

"[Hit]!" Haruhiro shouted as he struck at the goblin's outstretched arm, scoring a hit on it and drawing a far bit of blood. With tendons cut, the sword slipped through the goblin's fingers.

"Thank you." Manato gasped as he spun himself a little, using the momentum to throw the goblin to the ground.

The goblin was trying to get up, blood gushing everywhere as it stared at Manato with beady black eyes full of hate which sent a small shiver up the Priest's spin. But he wouldn't let that stop him. He had to appear strong. If he was shaken, then the entire party might follow. He had to be strong for their sake if not his own. So with a final cry, Manato pushed his spear into the goblin's head. The feel of pressing his blade into the creature's skull caused bile to form in the back of the young man's throat.

He couldn't freeze up. The fight wasn't over.

Ranta and Yume were teaming up against a second goblin, with Moguzo was facing off with a third goblin, being backed up by Shihoru. Mary stood beside Shihoru, her staff at the ready, but not seeming to be in any hurry to join in the attack.

But that was not her job. She was supposed to protect the Mage and provide healing. She would do nothing else, even if her assistance on the frontline would have been a great help to Moguzo.

"Haru, help Ranta and Yume, I'll back up Moguzo." Manato instructed the Thief.

"Right." Haruhiro said, moving off to the side in order to circle around the enemy.

Manato ran forward to Moguzo's aid as the Warrior struggled with his goblin. The sword and shield style that the goblin was using was much more fast paced than what Moguzo could keep up with while using his oversized sword, and the larger boy was being pushed back by a series of strikes.

The Warrior was ill matched and was struggling to hold his own by himself. Manato had known that going up against three opponents at once might have been too much, but against his better judgment he had agreed to try. They were lucky that the armor Shirou had given them was of a good quality compared to the warn down iron chainmail provided by the Warrior's Guild, otherwise Moguzo would have likely taken injures on both his arms and sides already.

Manato joined in with a strong overhand [Bash] bringing his spear right down at the goblin. Even though the creature blocked the attack with its shield, it was forced to stagger backwards, giving Moguzo the room he needed to get in a good swing of his own that knocked the goblin flat on its ass. Unfortunately, they hesitated too much to press their offensive and the goblin was back on its feet and once again had its shield up before they could finish the job.

"Thanks." Moguzo said, as he breathed heavily.

"Keep your guard up and spread out around him. Remember that we can take all the time we need. Haruhiro will help Ranta and Yume finish their target off soon." Manato told Moguzo.

"Right." The man said, nodding his head.

The two of them took their time, each strafing around the enemy in opposite directions and trying to keep the pressure on it. The goblin spun around, trying to snarl at both of them, swinging his sword and shield around in an attempt to keep both away. Then, seeing that it was out of options, it started to rush at Manato, determining him to be the smaller target.

The Priest blocked the monster's sword slash and tried to retaliate, only to having his action blocked by the shield. He was pushed onto his back leg and struggled to keep up with the goblin's mad attacks. "[Mystic Missile.]" Shihoru's spell slammed into the goblin's side, knocking it away as if it had been slammed into by a large animal.

Moguzo tried to finish the goblin, bringing down his sword in a two handed [Rage Cleaver]. "Thank you!"

The goblin abandoned its shield, rolling out of the way as the large sword slammed into the ground with a dull thud, cutting a small groove into the soil. Even with the miss, the goblin was now bleeding, and had lost the shield that had been giving the boys so much trouble.

"Damn it!" Ranta shouted. Manato's eyes darted to the boy and saw him staggering back from his own goblin. Blood was dripping down from a cut across his upper arm, above his gauntlet.

"Mary, I have my hands busy here. Go heal Ranta." Manato said, trying to keep his focus on the goblin in front of him. However, he nearly dropped his spear in surprise when he heard her response.

"I refuse." Mary said in her detached voice. "It's only a flesh wound. It doesn't require healing."

Ranta summarized it best with his response. "Are you shitting me!?"

* * *

Morale was very mixed as Manato and his team walked back into barracks later that afternoon. The day had been successful, with them having managed to hunt down seven goblins total, even if the yield from all seven of them was only around the same as the one they had managed to take down two days before. However, there was one thing that put a damper on their spirits: Mary.

They were all starting to see why Mary was often jokingly called 'Scary Mary', and why she never stayed with a party for very long. After all, who would want a healer who wouldn't heal?

While they had managed to get through their fight just fine, with Yume pulling off a kill on the goblin that had injured Ranta, before the five of them all ganged up on the remaining target, it was still a confusing moment for all of them. It wasn't helped when after the battle was over, and Ranta was demanding to know why she wouldn't heal him, she just glared him down and forced him to talk to her with respect, calling her 'Ms. Mary'. She told them that she would decide when she would heal them and what actions she would take. The her brutal coldness made everyone uncomfortable. Not only did she not help with fights or healing, she was bad for morale too.

In the end, Manato ended up healing Ranta's injury.

It was still the only [Cure] spell he had been required to use that day, so Manato returned to barracks relatively fresh, though with some food for thought.

Why would Shirou have recommended such an unreliable person to them? Was it simply because unaffiliated Priests were rare and there was no one else? Did he just not know what she was like? No, that wasn't it. The way they talked, Shirou knew exactly what Mary was like, but recommended her anyways. Why would he do that?

"Looks like Shirou-senpai's group is already back." Haruhiro said, gazing towards the kitchen where a small line of smoke was coming from the chimney. "I know we're starting to make a little money, but I'm still glad they are willing to feed us. It sure does relieve the stress."

Haruhiro was right, even after the last two successful hunts, without their senpais assisting them with expenses, they would have only just broken even. And there was no way that they would have been willing to try and handle the fights against multiple opponents they had that day without the armor and weapons Shirou had provided them. Not to mention the training allowing their group to make proper use of Yume and Shihoru's ranged support. They had a lot of reasons to be grateful.

Still, Manato would like to ask for an explanation about Mary.

However, when they entered the kitchen they found Rin there tending to a pot of stew with a slightly concerned look on her face. However, when she saw them she gave them all a charming smile, like the kind that would be carved onto a statue of a mother goddess.

"It's good to see that you've all returned home safely. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. It might not be up to Archer's standards of cooking, but I hope you will still join us anyways." She said.

"Huh, where's senpai?" Yume asked, looking around the kitchen, as if he would be hiding under one of the tables or in the closet, terrifying of an image as that was. Manato laughed to himself as he pictured a dark closet slowly opening to reveal Shirou standing there with a practice sword in hand, him and his team all screaming like little girls, like in some low budget horror movie… Movie?

"Archer has been sent to bed. So I'm going to be taking over in the kitchen until he recovers from his sleep deprived state." Rin told them.

"That's right. Shirou-senpai did say that he had been staying up at night so that he could work on our armor. He also helped up with training and had been doing all the chores and preparing meals." Haruhiro said frowning. "I guess he must have tired himself out helping us."

Manato's group shifted around awkwardly, knowing that they were to blame for Shirou's exhaustion.

"Don't feel guilty. Working himself hard like that is just in his nature. He didn't go to bed willingly. He was pretty insistent that he could still hunt and cook. I had to use my magic to knock him out, the same why I did for the four of you when you were peeking." Rin said with a small smile. With the reminder of their crime, Yume glared at the boys while Shihoru just blushed and turned her head away. Manato's shoulders plummeted. They had said that they were sorry. He regretted having given into to his baser instincts… even if they had managed to get that view… No, he was supposed to feel regret! Regret! "If it wasn't you, then it would have been something else. Archer is like a fidgety child who can't sit still for five minutes to save his life."

The Rookie group was all shocked into silence, having Shirou described as a problem child was something so bizarre that they didn't know what to say or think about it.

"Enough about that though. How was your day? Did hunting go well?" Rin asked them as she put out a pot of tea for them to drink from. She took a sip of it herself and barely masked her disappointment at the taste. It was still pretty good compared to what was normally served around the city, but it just didn't compare to what Shirou made. It lacked that sense that the entire universe had suddenly and miraculously obtained true and perfect balance for a few fleeting moments. The kind of thing where you half expect a rainbow or aurora to appear just to mark the moment.

The party didn't really know what to say. The boys all exchanging glances. None of them really knew Rin as well as they knew Shirou, and save for Yume, they couldn't even be said to know Shirou all that well. The most they knew about Rin was that she was a crazy powerful Mage and Priest, who was more than a little scary even in physical combat. Ranta in particular was eyeing the door, wondering if he should make a run for it. The Dread Knight had found Shirou to be just as scary, but mostly calm and passive and so Ranta could deal with being around him. But Rin was someone who could even master a guy like Shirou and engage him on a casual level, which elevated her from scary to terrifying in the perverted Dread Knight's eyes. Not to mention the killing intent they had felt from her the night before.

It was Yume who spoke up, seeming as unconcerned as ever. Possibly even excited. "It went really well! Yume and Haru managed to track down five different small groups! Two of them were too big, so we had to leave them alone, but we managed to beat the other three! Yume even shot two Go-blues herself." Yume said in her bubbling and childish manner, saying it as if they had gone fishing rather than had been fighting for their lives.

"Goblins." Haruhiro corrected flatly.

"Is that so? I'm glad everything is going well for you all." Rin said with nod of approval.

"Yep, everything went much better than before. Only Ranta got injured once, and Mary said that it was just a flash wand." Yume said as she took her own tea. Unlike Rin, she didn't seem to mind the drop in quality.

"Flesh wound." Haruhiro corrected her again.

"And let me guess, Mary didn't want to heal him before returning to the city." Rin said with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, that's right." Yume said, nodding her head before putting a finger to her chin and puffing out one cheek to show that she was thinking. "Which was kind of weird, because Mary didn't even know Ranta yet."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!?" Ranta shouted indignantly.

"Don't take it personally. Mary just has her own philosophy when it comes to a Priest's duties. Because of the limited number of heal spells a Priest can perform, she believes it is best to only use them when the situation calls for it. Those limited number of heal spells represent the boundary between life and death, so she is very careful about where she uses them. If your life isn't in danger, then it is best to save the Healing for later. If your armor can handle the attacks, there is no need for a blessing. If victory is assured, there is no need for a miracle." Rin explained for the younger group. "If Manato had left the wound as is, Mary probably would have healed it once you returned to the city, since she would have time to replenish her reserves."

Manato was stunned. Mary's actions suddenly made a lot more sense. He himself had been rushing to make sure that his team was always alright, even from the smallest of wounds. How many times had he healed them from basic scrapes and bites that had not been life threatening injuries and had drained himself of magic in the process? Perhaps he was far too careless with his healing magic.

"I see. So that's how a veteran Priest thinks." Manato said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Actually, no." Rin said with a small shake of her head. "Most Priests agree that if you ignore small wounds, they tend to cause people to make more mistakes and become more seriously injured and can even cause death. This is why Mary is so often thrown out of her parties. Normally her livelihood comes from raids since she can provide extra support once the raid is already over and she no longer needs to worry about conserving energy. Besides, for day long trips into less densely populated areas, such tactics are usually unnecessary at best for more experienced Priests with larger magic pools. Mary should have more than enough magic to heal all of you."

"If it is pointless, then was does she act like that? Why did Shirou recommend her?" Ranta grumbled.

"I have no idea why Mary thinks the way she does. I really don't know her that well. I've only worked with her twice and only really know her through the Tikkos. As for why Archer would recommend her, it's probably because Shirou shares the same philosophy when it comes to battle." Rin said.

"Senpai thinks the same way?" Yume asked. The others vaguely remembered how during their training regiment, Shirou had refused to allow them to be healed of their bruises until after the training was over.

"Yes. Not only would Archer refuse healing if he received a flesh wound, he'd also does a lot of resource management when it comes to his weapons. He always carries with him far more weaponry than he needs and when choosing what weapon to use, he will use the lowest quality weapon he thinks he can get away with using so that he can save the stronger weapons for the more important fights." Rin explained.

"That sounds stupid. Why not just use your best blade all the time?" Ranta said.

"You might think that now while you're dealing with only a bunch of unarmored mud goblins, but once you fight with stronger and more heavily armored opponents, you'll find that swords don't last very long when swung against armor day after day. Your armor can usually be repaired, but repairing weapons is a much more expensive process. It's usually cheaper to just replace your weapons around once a month because of basic wear and tear ruining the cutting edge. Or at the rate Archer goes through them, twice a week." Rin said, chuckling a bit. "Archer even uses his own personalized techniques to extend the weapons lifetime, but he still ruins them pretty quickly with how hard he uses them."

"Replacing a sword once a month." Haruhiro said, lowering his eyes and biting his lip. "A low-quality iron short sword costs four silver in the market. That's more than double what our entire group has made put together. Higher quality weapons cost even more. Upwards of forty silver pieces for good steel, and even more for higher quality or exotic metals." Count on Haruhiro to have kept his eyes and ears open in the market to check on the value of things. "A full set of second-hand armor costs eight gold at the very least, and the leathers to help wear it is another five silver, then there is all the food and the money he gave Yume… How much in debt are we to Shirou-senpai?"

Manato flinched a little after hearing Haruhiro listing out all the numbers. Shirou must have simply given them thirty gold worth of things already, fifty times as much as they had received from Bri.

"Don't think of it like that. You are under no obligation to pay us back." Rin said, waving them off. "We've done pretty much the same thing for every other group that has walked through the barracks doors since we got here."

"You guys do this every time a new group shows up? No wonder they still live in this dump." Ranta said, sounding more in wonder than guilty.

"We aren't poor if that is what you are asking. All of the equipment you've gotten from us hasn't cost us anything more than time and energy. Our party is sitting on around six hundred gold at the moment. So we actually could afford to have straight payed for all of those things if we had to. Archer just prefers to do all the resizing jobs himself. He says that the Blacksmith's Guild is too slow and expensive when it comes to refitting armor." Rin said with a short laugh, seeming not to notice the others' eyes at the mention of just how much money they had. They weren't just not poor, they were loaded. "The Blacksmith's guild is furious at us for it. They try to undercut our business, but we aren't actually competing with them. It's kind of funny how they keep dropping their prices, thinking that they will out compete with us, when we aren't selling any armor or weapons."

"How much would the resizing job normally cost?" Haruhiro asked.

"If you already have the armor, it costs around two gold. So that is ten gold if you have to both purchase the second-hand armor, and have it resized. Still better than making a full set from scratch, which would be thirty to fifty gold, depending on the variety." Rin said, giving them all a good estimate of the costs involved in their line of work.

"Um… Ms. Rin." Moguzo said holding up a hand, like a kid in class trying nervously to attract a teacher's attention.

"You don't need to be formal. Just Rin is fine." Rin said politely.

"The food." Moguzo said, pointing towards the pot which was starting to steam violently and bubble over.

"Shit!"

* * *

 **I'm probably going to stop writing for a while. Morale is low, and I find myself just no longer caring about the story, or fanfiction in general. No it isn't writer's block, it's depression, and it is a bitch. But that is something that comes and goes, so I'll probably be back eventually... probably... eventually.**

* * *

 **There are a few things from canon in Grimgar that I forgot, because they are all video game logic that doesn't really make sense in context. Such as Priests being forbidden from using bladed weapons, because they are symbols of violence and death, but one wielding a warhammer and breaking people's skulls open** **(evil cultists are humans too you know)** **while screaming about how he is going kick the living shit out of everything that lives is perfectly acceptable. (Priests are encouraged to kill enemies when able, and are even allowed staves that have sharp points, but they aren't permitted bladed weapons.)**

 **I am trying to find rational explanations for everything, like the Gleaming Line being some kind of inherent trait, since Thieves aren't actually taught it and they don't have a God to bless them with it, but I can't think of any way to rationalize why the Priest's Guild would be morally opposed to using blades. It isn't like their god opposes swords in general. He/she is the same god as the one overseeing the Paladins who all use swords.**

* * *

 **Explanation about Gleaming Line in the Light Novel.**

* * *

Gleaming Line's visual aspect is only a metaphor. He doesn't literally see a line. Not in the Line Novel at least.

It's actually more like the Mind's Eye character trait in the Naruverse, in that if you have enough insight about your enemy, you can fall into a trance in which you predict all their moves based on prior knowledge of the enemy type. You visualize what victory looks like and then create a series of events that would achieve the desired end.

So Shirou, being the OP bastard that he is, pretty much always has it going without knowing it, and not making the connection because it is supposed to be a rare event, not the normal state of mind.

The reason why Haruhiro falls into it so often is because he focuses on fighting a single enemy type day in and day out for months rather than diversifying his prey. He also doesn't allow himself to get cocky and remains in a constant state of believing that he is one misstep away from death.


End file.
